I spend a lot of time on social networks and have become much more savvy to the tricks that scammers try to use to gain access to your online accounts. I wanted to write this quick post to raise awareness about the potential dangers of clicking unsolicited shortened links. Since the advent of twitter and its use of 140 character messages, the use of URL shortening services that allow users to put links into individual tweets has sky-rocketed. I do it as a matter of course on my twitter feed, for instance using the built in WordPress URL shortener to publicise blog posts such as the one you are reading now. As long as you know and trust the user who has supplied the link there is little to be worried about. But last night, I was Direct Messaged (DM’d) by someone on twitter who I recently started following, but did not personally know. The message made me instantly want to click it and find out more…
More practice = more better. Getting my print mojo working, had a much better session today. I’m looking to get an edition of around 6 good prints per plate. Very low numbers, but that’s the deal. The prints I picked up today are getting better, still refining the technique though. So much to learn. (Apologies for the poorly lit photos – moving house and office at the moment so only able to snap with a little point and shoot digi-cam. Normal service will be resumed soon)
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Todays lesson. Don’t overwet your paper – especially when using water soluble ink. I was getting these crazy (unwanted) textures and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it. But thanks to some sage advice I believe over-wetting was the problem. This didn’t happen in todays’ session so it looks like that’s the cause. You can see the problem below:
Not cool – especially when it takes a good 30mins to prepare the plate for it to fail at the last stage… and then do it again on the next print because you can’t work out what’s wrong :/ Click thumbs below for a closer look.
I did a few very quick 5 minute self portraits today. I haven’t done one of these in a long, long time. I’m so used to drawing models at life class that its all a bit odd…
No-one ever said it was gonna be easy! 6 hours work, 9 prints made and barely 3 of saleable quality. I’ll have to listen to my own advice today. To succeed you must embrace failure. It may be frustrating that I’ve not managed to produce what I wanted, but the lessons learnt are invaluable moving forward.
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Click thumbs below to see the good the bad and the ugly in full size…
I’ve been having a monochrome moment for some years… but I do occasionally use colour. I drew this little still life in the Provence sunlight a few years ago using Karismacolor pencil crayons.
The light in this region is unlike any other and really does make a big difference, countless artists through the centuries have made the most of its qualities.
Just picked up my 1st edition. I’m posting up all 8 of the prints I collected today so you can see the variation print-to-print. I’m bloody knackered. Spent all day today at the print studio editioning the next plate. I’d forgotten how tiring it is to be stood up all day. Didn’t go so well print-wise which is a bit annoying. It takes ages to work up the plate for each print and so much can wrong at any stage. I’m sure its just practise, but its so gutting seeing the prints turn out bad after spending so long inking and working the plate. Heh ho, its all part of the game…
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Its difficult to see the difference because of the slightly shonky photography, but if you look at the areas such as the legs at the bottom of the plate or the black around the face you can see the variation. Click the thumbs below for larger images
Had my first full day down at Spike Print today, its great to finally start editioning prints after all the testing. I thought it’d be fun to post up the technique I am developing to render my Dry Point Etchings from Life Class. I’m determined to come up with something that no-one else is doing at the moment so I’ve been experimenting a lot with this method. Each print is individually hand-worked using the Artist Proof as a guide, so there is some variation from print to print. It takes a good half an hour from start to finish so its doubly gutting if it fails. By all means post comments if you have any questions about what I’m doing and I’ll be happy to answer.
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Step 1: Warm the dry point etching on a hot plate. This heats the metal so that the printing ink becomes more viscous when it is applied and seeps in the marks more easily.
Step 2: Ink the plate evenly from all directions using a scrap of mount board until the entire surface is covered with flat even tone.
Just picked up the latest proofs from the last batch of plates I produced a month or so ago now. Will be spending the next few weeks editioning my favourite pieces so that’ll be fun. The prints I gave as presents went down an absolute storm – leading to my first commission. Good times.
Completed in 2007 this film was made over the course of a few years in my spare time whilst working as a 2D animator. Having been brought up on Tom & Jerry and Tex Avery films throughout my childhood, it’s blacker than black humour reflected my frustration at working in the overly sanitized world of kids tv.
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Dave Cropley 