I started off the week, re-graining this stone below as last week when I did it circular scratches appeared in the stone surface, most likely as a result of me managing to get some grit mixed up between changing the grain. But with a re-do the scratches came out so I was ready to be able to use the gum transfer paper on it.
I have not used gum transfer paper but the process was pretty simple and just involved wetting the paper on the stone and putting it through the press - repeating this process a few times until the image was transferred onto the stone. So when peeled off I was left with this portrait on the stone ready to be printed.
Later on this week I drew on another sheet of gum transfer paper and placed this around the portrait, this portrait is of my mum and the shapes and marks are all expressions of her personality, life and energy.
I had to go in with a korn crayon over these transferred images to soften the edges and bring together the shapes that got slightly cut off with the positioning of the paper.
I now going forward have quite a lot to think about before I can start my proper works for my exhibition, including how to approach the background of the portraits, the colour of the marks, the colour of the portrait and composition. To start experimenting I have made up a stone below using brown ink, with solid shapes at the bottom, watered down shapes in the middle and a solid block at the top in which I will etch shapes into it. I will print this in different colours to see how it could look and what is the most effective technique going forward with my work.
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