When I am decomposing an image for a woodcut, I usually cut one plate per color. There are exceptions to this of course. I will occasionally print one plate more than once with different inks, but the one-per-color approach dominates. It doesn't have to be done that way, however. One approach to multiple colors from a plate is to go to [...]
I recently had a conversation with another artist about choosing colors. My woodcuts tend to have fairly simple color schemes, (2-5 colors), so the color choice is important. Perhaps surprisingly though, those decisions tend to happen fairly late in the process. For much of the time that I am working on an image, I am treating it as a greyscale image, [...]
A while back I discussed the notion of revisiting an idea. Today I completed printing an edition where I did just that. Here is the original: Moffett, Eastbound 2007 Color Woodcut 40" x 54" Image Copyright 2007, Dean Russell Thompson All Rights Reserved This is a pretty successful print. I have been able to show it several times and, [...]
Ok, I am not normally one to link to videos, but this one touched a soft spot for me. There is something about ink that gets under the skin (and under the fingernails) of every printmaker. We love the way the stuff goes down on paper, the way it layers, the way it shines. I love to mix color, to [...]
I recently completed a new woodcut. It has four plates which are cut in a pseudo-reduction fashion. Three of the plates are 1/2" MDF and the fourth is 1/2" CDX Plywood. The MDF is sealed with shellac and a thin coat of acrylic gesso. The plywood plate is sealed with shellac only. All plates receive an additional seal coat after [...]
I once had a art professor comment to me that most artists (student artists in this particular case) give up on an idea too quickly. I think that is some truth in that. While there are certainly many who take a particular idea and beat it to death with infinitesimal variations, (and many dealers who encourage it) there is a [...]
I have been busy editioning several new prints over the last little bit. It seems like I have had more work in progress, and less finished. I am sort of catching up on the backlog. North Lake Way Color Woodcut 21 7/8" x 14 1/4" Edition of 10 Copyright 2010, Dean Russell Thompson This is a three plate color woodcut, [...]
I had one of those days today. The kind of day where nothing goes right. I was pulling a trial proof of a new intaglio print. Four plates, etched in a variety of ways. My color choices stunk, the ink layers were not trapping properly, I may have to do a major rework on one or more of the plates... [...]
A while back I wrote about color and pigment in inks and paints (Copper Plate Daily - October 10 2009). I have been thinking lately about the differences between mixing colored inks and using process color. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, process color is the mechanism of creating color on a substrate by printing dots [...]
I recently replaced the lighting in my studio, and in the process gained quite a bit better understanding of how different lights affect our perceptions of color.There are two questions that you need to consider in this realm.What color is the light? How well does that light allow you to differentiate colors? The color of the light can be expressed [...]
