April 18, 2023

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

I drew the model

and made bad prints afterwards

Virgil Velasco made good prints,

on plate he carved before coming to the drawing session

We also experimented and printed

John Tollett's plate,

which he gave me in Santa Fe --

and he posted the result on his blog

PRINT MAESTROS

Virgil pulling, Henry pushing

to make a print

on Henry's letterpress proofing press

VIRGIL VELASCO

Virgil brought in two carved linocuts, and Henry printed them after the model session:

Virgil's first plate --

on Easy-to-Cut unmounted linoleum

Inked

The first print

Perfect every time

Virgil's second plate

on Expanded PVC Foam

Inking sections

with a thin Takach Press Specialty Brayer

The print!

JOHN TOLLETT

 John Tollett gave me an Expanded PVC Foam plate that he drew/gouged into, and Henry experimented with that using two colors:

"Painting" a second color 

with a thin Takach Press Specialty Brayer

The experimental print

Printed with a dirty darker color,

an Ultramarine Blue

with a touch of Diarylide Yellow

KRRRL Print

I drew the model onto Expanded PVC Foam, and then cut it out to make a puzzle print plate:

I gouged the figure with styli

It was not easy 

cutting the figure out from the background,

I broke two knives in the process

Inking in two colors

The inked puzzle plate

put back together

and ready to print

The print

I think the print looks better

with dirtier colors (right)

Midjourney AI Variations

 I ran my print though the AI Art program Midjourney:

 Midjourney

My image blended

with a fake image by Maxfield Parrish (see image below)

 Midjourney

I found this fake Maxfield Parrish image on Midjourney,

and blended it with my print

 Midjourney

Above image refried in  Midjourney

with prompt: "in the style of Moebius"

GRETA YOUNG

Greta Young in Santa Fe, also carved a linoleum plate, and we printed it with an impure black, mixed with a bit of yellow and blue:

Greta Young's print

FAIL

My laser engraved print failed twice.  First I failed on the laser cutter, engraving almost a whole layer off with no image, leaving only the sides un-engraved.  I salvaged the linoleum plate by engraving a second time.

However Henry's letterpress proofing press would not print the double-engraved plate.  The whole inside was too low to get any pressure.  Note in the image below, only the sides printed, the highest part of the linoleum plate:

On the sides printed

of the double laser engraved linoleum plate

Afterwards we laid on a new piece of paper

and pressed it with an Iron Frog glass baren

I double laser engraved two linoleum plates, so I messed up a second one as well.  However I just cut off the high edges and this plate should print fine:

Cut linoleum plate

CONCLUSIONS

• Henry's letterpress proofing press is a miracle machine, producing great prints every time (almost), way better than my Tortilla Press

• The Easy-to-Cut linoleum (not real linoleum) that Virgil bought at Hobby Lobby, printed very well.  And Virgil said that it was easy to cut.  Perhaps this is the best material to use for shallow cuts on complicated images.

• I like the dirty colors.  The colors straight out of the can are too pure, and don't resonate with each other when printed next to each other

• It takes a while to print with color, so it's not easy to do during the model breaks.  After the three hour drawing session we spent three more hours printing.  Therefore perhaps we need to arrange a separate printing session.  I could not call it a "workshop" since I'm not a printmaker.  But I could arrange a "Block Party" once a month, by bringing all the materials to a location, and asking everyone to bring their carved blocks to print. And if Henry came and guided us, that would be all the better

DRAWINGS

Leonardo.AI

Midjourney

Leonardo.AI

Midjourney

Midjourney

Midjourney