[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Saturday, 4 September 1999 Volume 08 : Number 690 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Maria Arango Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 08:14:57 -0700 Subject: [Baren 5615] Reductions Dave, thanks for the bulletin board. My personal feeling is that most announcements that are of interest to the group should be in the Baren list, but it may work for trades and materials and things that we want posted for more than one-Baren-long. On reductions, Since my work is so dependent on the process to bring out the image, I do a bit less multiple master-transfer preparation than most of you that use multiple blocks. I draw right on the block with permanent markers (Sharpie), which take water, oil, paint thinners...man! you can't get that stuff off! I have even made mistakes (once, I think :) and had to sand off and burnish some of the cherry wood and my marker lines were still there a few layers deep. Any line that I want to remain throughout all the colors I mark with the Sharpie. Color separations, or in this case, reductions, are done in my head. One trick that really helps is to print extra proofs. I do this one of two ways: one is to print on mylar or other (cheaper) transparent support so that you can just flip the thing over and guide your subsequent carving. The other is to pull a print on newsprint or the paper you are printing on and immediately print off the paper onto another sheet. This way you have a reversed guide. When printing reductions, you always have to keep in mind that whatever you are cutting away is the color that will remain, boggles the mind sometimes. If printing on light paper, highlights and lighter colors are cut first, progressing to the darker color areas and then the line. Right now I am doing some reductions on black paper, so the whole process is reversed. The other thing to keep in mind is that you cannot ever go back! Once your block is cut, it's gone. So things like edition size, extra prints to account for mistakes and misregistrations, etc. take on a new importance. Registration is not a problem usually because you are working on the same block, so unless you destroy your kento marks, you're pretty safe. The drawback if you print with dampened paper, is that it takes a while to cut your block between printing. So you have to either commit 2 days with no sleep or eats to your printing, or, more reasonably, carefully note how much you dampen the paper so that you can replicate the process exactly for every reduction. Maybe someone has a better method for this. I have not tried freezing the paper, but rest assured, I will. There is a challenge and an unknown factor when doing reductions, I think that's why I enjoy the process so much. Hope this helps, let me know if you need more specifics. Health to all, Maria ------------------------------ From: Bella1yopp@aol.com Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 12:48:13 EDT Subject: [Baren 5616] Reductions I have done many reductions. In fact, I am starting on my first handprinted reduction right now. I have always used a press in the past. I really love doing reductions because there is so much brain work involved. The boring part ends up being the time you are printing. I usually start off with twice as much as I am printing. I don't usually print very large editions... 25 was the most I ever printed, and it was a simple color reduction. I think I started off with 40 and actually had some left over. So I come up with the image. I either draw it on the board with charcoal or transfer it by Xerox color inking (or some like to call paper lithograph). I decide on my colors before hand and because I use oil base inks I mix them before hand. For press printing, I will soak my paper for an hour. I do sketches to decide where I want my colors. Then I cut and print, cut and print.... I will always proof the next color before I print. Perfect registration is difficult in the beginning... but some can do it. I still do not. I have used both sides of the wood for the reduction so I can have a more complex print. Sometimes I create a key block for the last color, the block that brings it all together. I will cut the key block first then print it on newsprint and then transfer that image onto my other block. From the other block I will do the color reduction. And print the key block last. I hope this helps. - -Amanda Yopp Tucson, AZ ------------------------------ From: "Brad A. Schwartz" Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 10:09:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 5617] Re: Reductions >So I come up with the image. I either draw it on the board with charcoal or >transfer it by Xerox color inking (or some like to call paper lithograph). I What is the above technique? Is this simply a Xerox transfer using lacquer thinner or ? A special paper? Brad A. Schwartz ------------------------------ From: Bella1yopp@aol.com Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 21:46:53 EDT Subject: [Baren 5619] Re: Reductions Brad, A Xerox inking is exactly that... inking a Xerox copy. Well, not exactly that. It is similar to litho in which it uses the components of oil and water. You will need Xerox copies bowl Oil based ink Brayer Gum Arabic Water Sponge (a good sponge without abrasive side) A press Take your bowl and fill it part of the way with 1/2 gum arabic and 1/2 water. Prepare your ink. It should have a certain consistency... Take your palette knife, Scoop up the ink and let it fall from the knife, it should slowly run off the knife, not to oily but not like relief ink. Roll out your ink with your brayer. Wet your sponge with water only, squeeze excess out. Lay down nickel size drop of gum arabic on glass. Spread it in an area the size of your Xerox. Do not use too much, but if you only put it down on part of the area the Xerox will not stick... Take a fresh copy, some swear by one that is less than 24 hours, some say they have used ones that are months old. Lay Xerox on this area, make sure it is flat to the glass. Now take your sponge and wipe the Xerox. You will see the white of the Xerox becoming speckled as it absorbs the water. Take your brayer and lightly roll the ink across the Xerox one way. DO NOT press Hard! Do it a few times. Take your sponge, dip it in the gum/water solution, squeeze out excess. Wipe Xerox, This will remove the ink off the white paper. The ink will be attracted to the areas with the toner. The water will be attracted to the areas absorbing the water. Re charge your brayer, Lightly roll the Xerox with ink again but going a different way (length wise). Again take your sponge, dip it in the solution, squeeze out excess. You repeat this until you can see in the light the ink on the toner. If you let the Xerox get to wet it will fall apart. If you let it get to dry it will stick to the glass. After you feel it is ready, Take your paper... I can't remember if it needs to be soaked or not. Lay the paper down on the press bed. Put the inked Xerox where you want it and put several cover sheets on top. Lay blankets down and run through press several times. It takes several tries to get the hang of it. The white of the Xerox will be toned... you really can't get a true white so expect that to transfer I hope this answers your question. If anyone wants anymore info on this technique, let me know... I might have a handout on it somewhere. - -Amanda Yopp Tucson, AZ ------------------------------ From: "Brad Schwartz" Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 21:34:07 -0700 Subject: [Baren 5620] Re: Reductions Hi... I'm not quite sure I get the final outcome of this process.... Basically the oil based in sticks to the toner? Then are you transferring the ink that was laid out on the color copy to a separate sheet of paper/woodblock? When you say, "Take your paper... can't remember if it needs to be soaked or not" what do you mean? Thanks! BS ------------------------------ From: Bella1yopp@aol.com Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 04:12:18 EDT Subject: [Baren 5621] Re: Reductions I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. It is difficult to explain ... but an easy process. The reason for doing a Xerox inking is to transfer the image from a Xerox. It needs to be a regular copy on white paper. A laser copy or color copy will not work. The image should have good contrast. Too many greys will make it hard to see the image. You can take a photograph. Xerox it. And transfer this image onto your wood. Or you can use that Xerox to transfer directly onto your paper. Just remember whatever you transfer will be in the reverse (like printing a woodblock). So if you want to transfer text it needs to be reverse. Ok- I found my handout on it.. so maybe this will be clearer. 1. Start with as fresh a Xerox as possible. It is better to have your xeroxs printed onto rag paper. 2. Get ready in the shop-- small amount of gum arabic pan of small amount of water (50/50 gum & water) Sponge ink in color of your choice- oil based etching ink diluted with oil, should be fairly runny brayer, soft rubber printing paper press, roller or spoon 3. Sponge flat marble, or glass surface and adhere xerox lightly and flat to the surface face up. 4. Sponge, more like blot the xerox with mixture of gum and water 5. Let it sit for approx 30 seconds to stabilize gum areas (white of paper). 6. Reblot, sponge with gum and water. 7. Roll gently with brayer and ink... do not apply and extra pressure. Water will adhere to paper area only, being repelled by toner and ink will be repelled by water and be adhered to toner areas. 8. Only a little ink is needed. Keep sponging to a minimum. 9. Print on press... place inked xerox face down onto print paper. Cover with clean sheet of butcher paper as cover sheet. 10. Run through press with fair amount of pressure. *** Certain colors can tend to bleed or stain the white areas of your inkings (red). Cutting your image as close to what you want before you begin, or after it is inked is a good idea. Yes, the oil based ink is attracted to the toner and avoids the white of the paper because it is soaked with water. Oil and water don't mix. Yes, you can transfer onto paper, wood, fabric... there are so many things I mean, I can't remember if the paper to be printed on (not the Xerox paper) should be soaked before being printed on. But I believe the paper should not be soaked. I hope this helps. It is just a cheap, less non toxic way (compared to using lacquer thinner or acetone) to print. It's a great technique. - -Amanda Yopp Tucson, AZ ------------------------------ From: "Jeanne N. Chase" Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 08:47:17 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5622] Re: Reductions Amanda Thanks for the clear post on reduction printing. I printed it out for future reference. These are tips that I need and put in my "How to do it notebook". Jeanne ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V8 #690 ***************************