PRINTING THE YEAR OF THE HORSE PRINT

I cut some paper and set everything up and printed about eight of the 'color' plate with Akua Carbon Black. Good thing I decided to check the registration with the 'line' plate, which turned out to be good, because it was the inks that weren't going to work.  I used Akua Mars Black, thinking it would be significantly darker and stand out over the Carbon Black, but it didn't.

I added a little Akua Titanium White to the Carbon Black and tried again.  It looked so great I was doing a little happy dance.

I took a picture of the first "Rupert".

Are you peeking?

I didn't have time to finish them all today.  I got only 8 made and this is a busy week.  I don't know when I'll get around to finishing the rest.  I was hoping I'd get them in the mail by this Friday, Chinese New Year, but it's not looking like that will happen.  But soon.

SECOND PLATE FOR YOT HORSE

The second plate will be a 'color' plate, although I'm thinking just different black inks.

I need to do a lot of scratching and crosshatching on the plate to make big sections of 'color.'

So, both plates are finished.  

NEED CONTACT PAPER

Once I got the template for registration made, I realized I didn't have any plastic contact paper to cover it with.  If you don't cover it with something that is wipable it will eventually get covered in ink, which will transfer onto your paper.  Not good.

I needed to make a trip to Target.

It's shelf liner with peelable paper so you can stick it down to whatever.  It works perfectly for my need, covering my mat board with the registration lines with clear plastic.  It will last a long time now.

TEMPLATE FOR PRINTING

I need to make a template to hold the acrylic plate when printing.  It will have marks to use to line up the paper.

I use mat board, cut a hold in the center the size of the plate, and then draw lines around the opening in various widths.

ACRYLIC? OKAY

After deciding on an image, the next hardest decision would be how I'm going to make this print.

Woodblock?  Moku hanga or oily?

Linoleum?  One plate or two? 

Hand rubbed or run it through the press?

Acrylic plates?...I just finished one and that went well...okay.  Let's go with that.

I didn't have a plate that hadn't been rolling around in my drawer and wasn't scratched all up.  So, where to buy - let's try the local hardware store.  Yes, they had some and it was cheap, but I have to cut it myself.

That's not too difficult,  score it and snap it.  The hard part is getting it really square, especially since I'm leaning towards using two plates, which means they need to be the same.

Let's just say, they ended up close.

Then it was just a matter of scratching the image into the plate - almost like drawing with a pencil.  

No peeking.

TIME TO THINK ABOUT YOT HORSE

It's time to start thinking about an image for my Year of the Horse print for the annual Chinese New Year exchange with Barenforum.  I drew up a couple of different ideas, but finally settled on this guy, who I'm calling Rupert.

I think he's very interesting.