Saturday, April 4, 2009

Reduction Relief Print



I'm overdue for getting my Baren Forum Chinese New Year exchange print done and I finally got time blocked out to work on it.  After some  research I decided on a design and got it worked out.   The reasons for doing a reduction print are less carving, better registration and harmonious color.  I had a new material I bought from McClains that is linoleum-like and is used by Japanese schoolchildren.  I bought a larger piece and cut it to size on my Kutrimmer with no problem.  I even rounded the corners on a corner rounder.   

I tried at first to use the Daniel Smith water washable oil relief ink but it wasn't drying and I remembered reading  that it takes a long time to dry especially with layered color.  Plan B was using my lithographic ink from Graphic Chemical and that worked fine.  I used a LOT of the transparency medium for the first block which gave the pale blue background color.   I even used a good bit of transparency medium with the second (brown) color.   I liked the second stage of the print so much I almost quit but I'm glad I didn't now that I've carved and proofed the black layer.

Happy Year of the Ox!!


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