Print Making 1 -- Relief

A relief print is made by cutting an image into a plate, rolling ink onto the surface, putting paper on top and running it through the press. Where the plate has been cut away, the image will be white. Where the plate has been left intact, the image will be the color of the ink. Wood block prints are relief prints. In our class we used linoleum plates and the prints are called "lino-cut prints". I liked this process a lot. I did two prints, "Flight" and "Hall of Mirrors". I'll return to print making classes next year.

Print Making 1 -- Dry Point

A dry point print is made by scratcing an image onto a copper plate using a carbide-tipped scribe, applying ink to the plate, heating it gently and then rubbing the ink off where you want the image to be light. Paper is placed on top of the plate and it is run through the press. The image may be rubbed out and a new image scratched onto the plate. Sometimes portions of the previous image may be retained for and/or show through the next image. I did five images for this series but will only post three: "Stone", "Ladybug" and "VW Beetle". I liked this process a lot.

Print Making 1 -- Lithograph

Traditionally a lithograph was made using a very high quality sandstone. The chemicals used in that process can be quite toxic so we use polyester plates which are better for the environment. To make a lithograph an image is separated into its component colors and a separate plate is made for each color. The design may be printed onto the plate using a laser printer or it may be hand drawn using a special pen. Each color is printed separately and the print must dry between printings as the plate can pull the ink off of the print. During printing, the plate is sprayed with water and ink can be rolled onto the plate since ink and water do not mix. The process can be a little tempermental since the paper tends to stick to the wet plate and that can make it difficult to line it up perfectly. This print, "P is for Poppy", is make with six colors: yellow, red, green, blue, cream and orange.

Print Making 1 -- Collagraph

A collagraph (like "collage") is made by gluing things to a plate, inking it, adding paper on top and then running it through the press. These collagraphs, called "The Enormous Room", were inspired by e. e. cummings WW II autobiography with the same title.

Print Making 1 -- Monotype

A monotype is a print where ink is applied to a glass plate, paper is placed on top and then run through the press. The print may be dried and new color layers added. This print, "Balloons in the Sky", has three layers of color: yellow, red and blue.

Photography 1 -- T Rex

Perhaps your newspaper did not cover the story of the T Rex that attacked the new business school on campus. There are some people on campus who suggest that the art department had something to do with the attack. It may have had something to do with the art department getting the space that it really deserves but I wouldn't know anything about that. This is from roll number ten.

Photography 1 -- Wire

Here is an abstract image of some wire found in the Hyatt Nature Reserve. I took quite a lot of shots there but liked this one the best. It generated a lot of discussion in class. It is from the eighth roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Campus Trees

Here is a landscape from the BSU campus looking out toward the green belt. This is from the fifth roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Power Sweep

Here is a still life from my garage. When the other students in the class saw this, they really got a kick out of it. It is from the fourth roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Portrait

This is a portrait of my photography professor. When he saw this he said, "Oh, that's a good portrait, even if it is of me." This is from the third roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Grape Vine

This is from the second roll of film. This photo is taken in my back yard.

Photography 1 -- Dead Iris

I enjoyed this class much more than I thought that I would. I especially enjoyed working in the darkroom. Watching an image appear is almost like watching magic. I took about 400 photographs during the fall semester, but will post only about six or seven. This was from the first roll of film.