Posts Tagged ‘intaglio’

Pooh and Piglet Picking Violets

Friday, September 24th, 2010

Pooh and Piglet Picking Violets, color edition, by Amy Crook

Pooh and Piglet Picking Violets, color edition, by Amy Crook

One of the easiest way to etch a printing plate is called dry point, where you basically draw on the softer metal of the plate with a sharp steel point, creating grooves in the plate. These never last very long, I only got half a dozen prints out of it (I did 2 editions, 3 each of the black and white, below, and the color, above), but there’s something very satisfying about working directly with the material this way.

The color edition was created by carefully rubbing the inks just into the parts of the plate where I wanted them, and then taking care not to overly clean off the excess, leaving the soft glow of yellow on Pooh bear, as well as the gentle shading on the greenery.

This was actually my very first attempt at printmaking, and I wasn’t sure what to do, so I drew two of my most favorite characters. I’ve given away the rest of the edition so I only have the two examples left, which I’m choosing not to sell because of the copyright still surrounding A. A. Milne’s wonderful characters.

Pooh and Piglet Picking Violets, 10″x6″ etching on watercolor paper, not for sale.

Pooh and Piglet Picking Violets, black and white edition, by Amy Crook

Pooh and Piglet Picking Violets, black and white edition, by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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Shadows and Balances

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Shadows and Balances by Amy Crook

Shadows and Balances by Amy Crook

This is another monoprint created with layer upon layer of ink, running the paper through the press several times. I inked some of my small etching plates with the monoprint ink, which obscures the actual image etched on the plate and turns it into just another abstract shape in the composition. A total of 7 plates were used in this piece, some of them blank and some etched.

Shadows and Balances, 18″x26″ monoprint on 22″x30″ watercolor paper, $399 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Red Death

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Red Death by Amy Crook

Red Death by Amy Crook

This piece has a bit of a story to it. It’s a large monoprint, with a very small etching plate near the center of the paper. The two more random images were created by mixing up the blood-red ink and then smushing it between two plates, and then printing the result. I love the way the bottom image looks a bit like a heart (of the anatomical sort), while the left image seems to hold a whole world of secrets, a landscape of crimson mystery.

The etching plate is part of a series I started and never finished, depicting Neil Gaiman’s Endless from his Sandman comic series — but not the people, the ideas they represented. This plate was, I think, the most successful, the image for Death. I did print a single edition of the plates by themselves, and I’ll post those next month sometime (very Halloween appropriate).

Together the 3 images seem to tell a story, or to invite the viewer to tell their own story. I think every piece of art has something to say to the viewer, but not every person gets the same message. I’m always curious what a piece says to other people — what does this one say to you?

Red Death, 22.5″x16″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $699 with free shipping.

Red Death, detail, by Amy Crook

Red Death, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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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, 15.5″x23″ intaglio and monoprint on imported Mexican bark paper, $499 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art
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Icon

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Icon by Amy Crook

Icon, 1″x1″ etching on a 10″x4″ piece of watercolor paper

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

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Whorls and Turns

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook, $499

For once, 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.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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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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Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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