Printing Process

After a festive day at Renegade yesterday, I spent an early snowy morning at the studio finishing the first half of the Christine Jorgensen diptych. 

First I trimmed the block on the studio's table saw. This is a wonderfully lazy method: without a saw I could have carved out the extra several square inches on the block, but why put my finger joints through that when better tools are available? 

Next, I locked the block into the bed of the press. A few pieces of chipboard are cut to match the dimensions of the linoleum block and packed in underneath, to bring the surface of the linoleum to type high (that is, the height where the rollers will hit the block). The carved block is kept in place with long blocks of wood (called furniture) and a quoin, which can be expanded to snugly lock in the furniture and the block by rotating the quoin key.

Then I mixed the ink. For consistency throughout the full run of this project, I kept the ink mixture as simple as possible so I can closely match it again in the future. I bought a can of purple ink and mixed it half and half with opaque white. 

After inking up the press, I pulled a first proof on scrap paper. This is always an exciting moment for me as a printer, to finally see the result of all the hours of carving labor hunched over at my desk.

But that isn't to say that the carving is done, or that the block is ready to print! The first proof is on the left, and the final print is on the right. I saw from the spotty, lightly textured first proof that I needed to add more chipboard under the block to raise it up high enough for even contact with the inked rollers. I also err on the side of leaving too much not carved, so that I can cut more away once I see how the block prints. Looking at the proof I decided that I did not like the wimpy-looking "electric" movement out of the microphone, so I improvised some more cuts for a more balanced & bold look.

Then all that was left was to print the full edition. I printed 60 for a final edited edition of 50, giving room for me to take out of the run any prints that were under-inked, gunky or imbalanced in some way.

And there she is!

Block finished!

The Christine Jorgensen block is complete! Check in early next week for the first finished print of the history series collaboration with writeyourprincipal.com. 

Bookish Progress

Early, frustrated notebook

For the past two months I have been laying the ground work for a new book. Getting the momentum going at the beginning was not easy: this is a larger, more involved project than anything I have attempted before, and the difference in scale and emotional commitment was enough to set my feet in proverbial concrete for the first few weeks. I diligently tried to write, and write, and sketch, and plan, and re-write some more, but distraction came easy and I went on a lot of angry, frustrated walks to try to talk through the friction. I ended up spending hours at local coffee shops staring at my notebook, pulling my hair, sipping tea, and going home in defeat.

Through the muck and grime a few ideas stuck, and as I worked to develop a promising thread the other secondary ideas fit in smoothly. I suddenly had a coherent narrative and the whole project made sense. I can't describe what a relief that was! My notebooks grew increasingly more orderly.

In the background: a proper (for me) outline format!

In the foreground: a quick sketch to work through page composition

Steps towards production are moving swiftly. I made a small signature to work through pacing in the first (most fully developed) chapter, to get a sense of how many pages the book might be; I have grant deadlines in my back pocket for this project; I have figured out press sheet and final book dimensions, and so on.  Most importantly, I typed up the project plan in full yesterday and sent it to three groups of trusted & talented friends for critique and feedback. 

It is going to be a hand-illustrated comic/graphic novella with no text or dialogue, just visual sequences. I don't want to give away too much about the story yet; that will come as the illustrations are  completed. For now I can say that I have been thinking a lot about what it is to make work, why I am (/others are) drawn to production and creation and output, and what happens when that fails. Also, fire!

Battleship Gray Friday

Monkey-Rope Press doesn't think much of Black Friday (although I will admit, I spent a few hours this morning looking for discounted book presses); after all, who needs Black Friday when you have a luxurious block of battleship gray mounted linoleum needing a few more hours of love and care? Christine J. and I spent a quiet afternoon together worrying over her dress, and I can't wait to see how it looks printed. Some of the more shallow cuts might need re-touching once I proof the block, but it's exciting to have so many more square inches finished! Press-time will be scheduled in the near future; until then, happy post-Thanksgiving hibernation, y'all!

Facts, Hercule, facts!

I spent this grey, windy Chicago Saturday working on the Christine Jorgensen print. My first step today was to tape the drawing to the linoleum block with graphite paper underneath. The image is just smaller than the block at 11" x 15", so I chose the best corner of the block and lined up the paper's corner against those two edges before taping. I will trim off the excess borders on the table saw at the studio before printing, to save myself the effort of extra carving.

Side note: one thing that I learned the hard way about printing linoleum blocks on a vandercook is that mounted linoleum blocks that you can buy at art stores or online are often not cut perfectly square, which can be a nightmare to print if registration is important. (Registration in printmaking refers to the amount of variance and accuracy in the overlapping of different colors in a single print.) An irregular block might look and feel like it is properly locked in to the bed of the press, but every time the rollers pass the block has a tendency to travel quite significantly. The first pass of my first multi-color linoleum print travelled wildly--more than half an inch--and I didn't notice until more than halfway through the run. Disaster! Although this is a one-color print, squaring the image is still good practice.

Now, tracing. Again. This is the 2nd time the image has been traced, after the mirror-flip trace on the light box.

Finally, the fun: carving! After honing my tools to be sure they are sharp, I started carving. This is a detailed print, so carving takes quite a while. It is an engaging process, but let's be honest: sitting down to carve for 5 or 6 hours at a time can make a girl's mind wander towards less hand-aching tasks. I get the least distracted when I carve by listening to movies or the radio; this was a Shot in the Dark/My Blue Heaven/His Girl Friday-length carve.

This might not look like much for 5ish hours of work, but I am quite pleased with it so far.

Back to the block!