October 3, 2022

We drew and printed at Henry Morales' studio in Albuquerque:

PRINTMAKING

Since we drew in Henry Morales' printmaking studio, I brought a stack of white Expanded PVC Foam squares (roughly 8x8 inches) and handed them out.  One can draw with a ball point pen pushing into the PVC foam, which is like carving, to create a plate for relief print. The lines will print white (the paper color) since they are indented.

Between model breaks and after the session, Henry printed our PVC plates for us;

Henry Morales inking my plate

before printing it in his studio

My PVC PRINT

The pencil drawing

I began by outlining the figure in ball point pen,

pushing the pen hard enough to dig into the PVC foam

Final ball point pen drawing/"carving"

Henry inking my PVC plate

Henry inked my PVC plate unevenly...note that the brayer picked up the lines of my figures, and transferred that texture to the background (upper right, for instance).  I placed the paper unevenly on the PVC plate.  But somehow all this haphazard inking enhanced, rather than hurt, the final print:

Henry Morales' Print

Henry drew the figure on a larger piece of PVC Expanded Foam. 

Final print

RICH's PRINT

Rich drew the model directly into the Expanded PVC Foam with a ball point pen.  He found that he didn't push hard enough with the pen...and also that using an awl just tore the PVC foam.  Later he went over his lines again with the ball point pen, digging deeper.

Drawing with a ball point pen

pushing into the Expanded PVC Foam

The final plate

ball point pen "carving"

Henry printing Rich's PVC plate

The final print

GREG KOVACS

Greg Kovacs also drew the model into an Expanded PVC Foam plate. 

Henry also inked Greg's plate unevenly.  The final print has an extra charm to it:

CONCLUSION

I am looking for QUICK PRINTMAKING TURNAROUND.  If an artist can make a printing plate by just drawing into it -- without carving -- then he can create a plate in 20 or 30 minutes.  We can print quickly on 8x8 inch paper during the model breaks.  I try to give the artist a cheap 8x8 inch frame so that they can walk away from the drawing session with a complete work of art.

This quick turnaround can encourage artists to make linocuts.  And when we get enough 8x8 inch linocuts we can have a pop-up print show, or something more substantial such as our print show at the Los Griegos public library.

Our print show

at the Los Griegos public library

My ultimate agenda is to get something more substantial out of the drawing sessions. 

ROAD BUMPS:

One still has to push pretty hard into the Expanded PVC Foam with the ball point pen.  Perhaps if we used something better than a cheap ball point pen it would be easier to "draw/carve."  Maybe Tandy sells a blunt instrument that will push nicely into the PVC foam.  However a more rigid ink pen would be better, because the artist can see his lines.

Also I am having a hard time getting the Expand PVC Foam.  Port Plastics in Albuquerque has been out of it since the beginning of the year due to PVC shortages.  However I note that I can order eighth inch, 6x12 inch Expanded PVC Foam sheets on Amazon, a package of ten is about $40.

I am very envious of Henry's Letterpress Proofing Press. One run through his press bites beautifully, since the proofing press has a lot of pressure, creating beautiful prints every time (almost) -- and QUICKLY!!!  We are spending a lot of extra time burnishing prints after pressing them on the Tortilla Press.  I am thinking that an A4 Woodzilla press would bite stronger and print more quickly.  Speed and rapid turnaround is everything with a group.

TUCSON

Meanwhile out in Tucson, Rogo (also of the Desert Triangle) was cranking out prints during a skateboard convention on his beefy Tortilla Press:

Rogo cranking out small prints

on his Tortilla Press