Week Two - Learning about the process

The process of lithography was one I really enjoyed in second year so with my third year work I have decided to continue using this technique. I had never grained my own lithography stone in preparation to draw on it so this week I was taught how and left to do one myself, the steps in which to do this were:

- Firstly to get the previous drawing off of the stone we used a course grit (80), and repeatedly used it and washed it off until the image was gone.

- After doing this we used a ruler and a piece of paper to test the level of each part of the stone to ensure when graining the stone we keep it level so that when you come to print the stone it is able to transfer the image completely because the stone is flat.

- Then moved on to 100, 180 and 220 grits, doing 3 rounds of each on the stone, washing completely in between each one to make sure none of the grit got mixed.

- It is then dried and ready to be drawn on.

The above photo shows the stone and the tool used to grain the stone, I think it is important to learn how to do each process in preparing your materials as it furthers your appreciation for the technique and really means it is your work from start to finish.

After the stone was dried we painted around the edges with gum to create a border, anything on the gum will not print once finished so it allows me to keep my portrait contained. I am looking forward to starting to work with the materials on stone.