Posts Tagged ‘intaglio’

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The Texture of Faith

Monday, September 6th, 2010

The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook

The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook

This print uses 3 of my little etching plates, two of which have been double-inked so that there’s a primary color in the actual etching, and a secondary red on the surface of the plate. The top two plates are both found objects of a sort, the smaller one is actually part of a larger plate that I cut up and kept pieces of to use in other prints. The paper has a beautiful texture of its own, lending an extra dimension to the abstract images, and giving a rich desert for the tiny cruciform figure to wander in.

The Texture of Faith, detail, by Amy Crook

The Texture of Faith, detail, by Amy Crook

There’s a lot of meaning that could be inferred here, but this is one of those pieces that’s hard to quantify for me — I can talk about this technical aspect or that process, but the end result was something unexpected. There’s hints of stories and ideas hiding in the abstract, brought out by the smallest image at the bottom.

The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook, 15.5″x23″ intaglio and monoprint on imported Mexican bark paper, $499 with free shipping. $50 of your money will go to charity.

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Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art | No Comments »

Icon

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Icon by Amy Crook

Icon by Amy Crook

This is another tiny etching plate, which I inked using a method where the figure, who was etched deep enough to leave an impression in the paper, was inked in yellow, then the plate was wiped mostly clean and the rest of the surface was re-inked in red.

In classical art, yellow is the color of suffering, and of course in modern times we’re all about red for pain and blood. The diluted ink actually bled down the paper a little when it was run through the press, adding to the symbolism.

I actually did a whole series of crucifixion pieces during that time period, though this is definitely the smallest of the lot — the plate itself is only one inch square.

Icon, detail, by Amy Crook

Icon, detail, by Amy Crook

Icon, 1″x1″ etching on a 10″x4″ piece of watercolor paper, $299 $233 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $30 of your money will go to charity.

Details about Icon:

  • It’s one of a kind, not part of an edition
  • It’s printed onto watercolor paper, and would need to be matted or framed before display
  • I can matte or frame it for you for a small fee, or you can do it yourself, either way shipping is always free
  • The paper is approximately 10″x4″ but the image is only 1″x1″
  • When you buy this piece, $30 will go to the charity that’s in the sidebar at the time you buy it

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Posted in Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books | No Comments »

Whorls and Turns

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

In honor of Fabeku’s cartoon and my upcoming Color Clinic teleclass with Wendy Cholbi (it’s free!), I thought I’d post something brightly colored for Friday. This is a great example of the way monoprint inks feel a lot like high-quality finger paints, and the playfulness that it gave to the process. Also an example of me not wearing gloves in the printing studio like I should have, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

When I really got into monoprinting, one of the things I did was make a number of small etching plates that I could use interchangeably along with the monoprints and special papers to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Here you can see three of those small plates, which were printed onto the page in a single run.

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

These small plates were about 1-1.5″ each, and could be inked a number of different ways to get different effects. You can see these three were all initially inked with a deep blue, and then the bottom one was wiped almost clean of blue and inked again with the red to give it the effect of blue veins in red rock. Once those plates had been run, the rest was done on a blank monoprinting plate, which would be printed right over the images that were already there. It’s interesting bit of approximation, since the image prints backwards onto the page.

This one-of-a-kind print is on thick watercolor paper suitable for framing, but not ready to hang by itself. I’m happy to matte or frame pieces before shipping for the cost of the materials.

Whorls and Turns, 12.5″x11″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $499 with free shipping. $50 of your money will go to charity, check out the sidebar to see who I’m donating to this month.

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Ogdred Weary

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Ogdred Weary, detail, by Amy Crook

Ogdred Weary, detail, by Amy Crook

This print combines two printing techniques for a singular layered result. First the colors were painted onto a blank acrylic plate with monoprint inks and the  piece was run through the printing press. Then, a deep-bite etched intaglio plate was inked and the already-printed page was run through a second time, which left the textured black impression overlaying the color. It can be a very precise process, but I never was a very precise artist, so you can see that the two plates don’t quite align on the page, which accents the loose style of the print itself.

I only ever made one print like this one, but it’s one of my favorite images to have come out of my explorations with printmaking. I named it after an Edward Gorey pseudonym, because the image reminded me of some tentacled beast that might live in a pond in one of his delightfully morbid picture books. My favorite of his is The Gashlycrumb Tinies, because it opens with, “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.”

Ogdred Weary, 3″x3″ etching and monoprint on 7″x10″ watercolor paper, $699 with free shipping. $70 of your money will go to charity — check out the sidebar to see which charity I’m donating to this month.

Ogdred Weary by Amy Crook

Ogdred Weary by Amy Crook

This print is on a high-quality watercolor paper, but is not suitable for display without a matte or frame. I’m happy to frame it for you for a small additional fee.

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Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Tentacles | 1 Comment »

Man Dressing

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Man Dressing 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Man Dressing 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Today’s art is an etching, which means there’s several prints, though I only have 1 of each edition below. All of my prints are hand-pulled the old-fashioned way using a printing press, whether they’re etchings or monoprints, and while I still have some of my old plates I doubt they’re in any shape to be printed from these days.

I’ve always been fascinated with our rigid ideas of gender, and the way that costumes that were considered the height of masculinity in their day (including the ruffles and corset in the image) are considered effete and downright kinky nowadays. This image was drawn with the help of a model, though we didn’t lace him fully into the corset, and uses a painstaking cross-hatched shading style that I vowed never to try again after this image. I’ve gone back to the technique now that I’m older and more patient, but it’s still one of my least-favorite methods due to the time and precision required.

Click below to see all three editions on their full pages. Don’t forget most images you can click on to see a bigger version, too.

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Elements

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Elements by Amy Crook, detail

Elements by Amy Crook, detail

After many months of working in the printmaking studio, I amassed quite a collection of little printing plates with abstract and symbolic images on them. I made a number of monoprints using them, including this one. It’s got elements of etching, monoprint, and chine collé in it, and always felt to me a bit myterious, as though it was trying to show me something I could never quite make out.

The grey panel at the top uses the oil-based printer’s ink on one of the blank monoprint plates to render a smoky image. The middle is a piece of paper from one of the Chinese New Year packets, imprinted with an etching plate that took most of the foil away with it. The final image is a tiny etching plate, a mere one inch square, echoing the smokiness of the top image, or perhaps originating it.

I think I still have a bunch of these plates, and I miss being able to pull them out and muck about late into the night, handling the thick, wet paper and exploring all the different ways the images I’d created could become something new.

Elements by Amy Crook

Elements by Amy Crook

This is the full page, including the inevitable inky fingerprints and smudges around the edge.

Elements, 9″x12″, etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $399 with free shipping. $40 of your money will go to charity, check out the sidebar to see who I’m donating to this month.

The thick watercolor paper of this print is not really suitable for display as is, but I’m happy to matte or frame it for you for an additional fee.

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Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird | 1 Comment »

Animal Instincts

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Animal Instincts by Amy Crook

Animal Instincts by Amy Crook

Photo etching is an interesting process where you start with a photograph, have film negatives made, and then use that to control exposure of a light-sensitive material to, well, light. Then it’s done like normal etching, except the parts where the light hit are more solid, so they don’t dissolve, and you’re left with the positive image eaten away, all ready to take ink.

My model at the time asked to have his back painted to try out his idea for a tiger stripes tattoo, so I got ink and a sumi-e brush and painted him up and took photos. I’ve had a chance to use those images for several things, including this piece.

Animal Instincts, 3″x3″ photo etching, $199 $155 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $20 of your money will go to charity, check out the sidebar to see who I’m donating to this month.

This was printed in an edition of 26, of which I still have 4 + 1 with tea stains (oops).

These prints are on thick watercolor paper, but aren’t really suitable for display as is. I’m happy to frame it for you for a wee extra fee, though.

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