I want to get better at writing in this learning log the day I’ve worked on things. This won’t be possible for everything but I’m giving it a go, beginning with yesterdays experiments and into today’s…

30/4/13

I picked two designs to create masks from, the first based on this leaf drawing. Inspiration came largely from Matisse’s work on leaves/fauna.

Leaves Design

Whilst I don’t love the simplicity of this image, I thought it would work well as a bold mask as a positive or negative mask, so I began cutting out the leaves from the paper to create the mask.

Creating the Mask based on Leaves Design

At this stage I was happy with them being suitable for use in the print so I began preparing to Ink the Printing Plate – this proved trickier than I first thought!

The Inking Plate in action

First Leaves Print using Negative Mask on Watercolor Paper

As you can see my first print didn’t turn out that well, I assumed this was either because of the paper, not enough Ink on the Printing Plate, or me not applying enough pressure.

I then took another Print on the same Plate, (without re-inking the plate) but onto Bamboo Printing Paper (which is much thinner). I think the results are a stronger print.

Leaves Positive Print on Printing Paper

I felt like I needed another go with the Leaves Mask so cleaned the Printing Plate and Inking Plate and began the process again, more to come on that in a second post.