2016.01.19 Let's Dance (2)

Let's Dance (2)

2016.01.19

Monotype

Info on how this was made here: www.facebook.com/media/set/…

 

I think this print came out well and I am satisfied with it. I think it conveys the feeling that there are two people dancing better than the first one - I'm not sure if that's about the registration or the colors.

 

Nevertheless, there are some technical things I'm still working out and will discuss below - not because solving them would necessarily make this image better but because the more understanding I have the more options I have - and maybe my discoveries will be useful to someone else.

 

For this print I first inked the whole plate green, then used three hand-cut stencils - one each for pink, red, and purple. The difference between stencil and mask is a little fuzzy - I mean you are always masking something and always letting something through. However, I think of these as stencils because they are each a whole page with holes cut where I want the ink/paint to come through. If it is a shape cut from the page, then I think of it as a mask. OK, sorry I'm rambling tonight but I do like language.

 

In any event, I already had the gelli plate 'locked' in place on a piece of glass by a thick ridge of tape around it on the glass because otherwise I found it slid around a bit when I was rubbing which wasn't so good for registration. After Shelly's suggestion, I looked around the studio and found something about as thick as the gelli plate, then taped that to the glass next to the plate. Next, I taped the page I was printing to the raised object so I could flip it up and down for prints. This meant the paper and the plate should keep perfect registration.

 

In the previous print, I laid the stencils on the plate. In this case, I clipped them to the sheet I was printing so I could see on the print that everything was lined up correctly. (paper and stencils are 8.5 X 11 inch card stock, while my plate is 5X7 inches. Therefore, I could easily clip outside the printed area).

 

So I think registration was pretty good for this one. Nevertheless, many elements are not exactly as I planned, for instance I wanted the purple stripe on the lower part of the right arm, to be the lower part, not for there to be that pink line below it. Again, I'm not saying it isn't fine the way it is, I just like to understand how things work, so I have more options at my fingertips in future.

 

So here's what I think happened. As I mentioned, my stencils and the sheet I'm printing are both on a fairly heavy cardstock. Because the stencils are therefore a little thick, and the sheet therefore a little inflexible, I think each of the areas getting printed is smaller than I planned because the page is not pressing down all the way to the edge of the cut areas, and this explains the small 'halo' lines around areas that I thought would line up.

 

So... if I do want exact registration, I think the next things to try are:

 

- Cut the shapes being printed on top of others a little larger then it seems they need to be.

- Use a more flexible paper to print on

- Use a thinner material for stencils and masks

 

Well that's my theory, as yet untested - please let me know if anyone has any other ideas.

Done