I’m having the hardest time coming up with a title for this piece. I still don’t know if this should be considered complete as well. The urge to tinker and fix mistakes still tempt me. I’m going to reprint this project because the possibilities that collage brings gives me the capability to work multiple compositions. I’m hoping the next version I create might be used for the upcoming show. Still not sure what will be needed yet, but the excitement has not worn off.

Yay.

Projects are starting to snowball. Last year I was struggling to put together ideas, while this year there’s too many to juggle. I have two books waiting to be printed, a linoleum to carve and print, an eight-foot tall monster to silkscreen, as well as various sketches to develop and blocks to reprint. Guh, too much!

P.S. Don’t forget the poll from last post, I still need more input!

I got around to this a day later. I didn’t buy paper in time to print. Whoops.

I printed for most of my afternoon. This is was how I spent all of week 9 on, carving and prepping my print. I made a proof print for my mentor meeting on Saturday.

The ink was all old and gummy, which left odd spots. Seeing it printed out, I also saw that the pinkie needed to be carved out more. It just kind of blends with the sweater and hair. After fixing those on Sat.-Sun. I came in today and printed.

I was quite rusty with printing. My first few prints kept coming up grayish and splotchy. I had to experiment with the printing press’s pressure and the amount of ink applied. I printed more than I would have liked, but I got 2-3 good prints to use. It’s hard to notice with these tiny photos, but all the tiny cuts look amazingly detailed in person.

Another thing I was doing this week was attempting a photo transfer. The school’s artstore was out of the blender markers all last week, so I used some of the print studio’s acetone. It came up with hit-or-miss results. When the blender markers finally came in to the school store, I tested them today and got less pleasing results. Both methods give me headaches, so I’m off to test the wintergreen oil tonight. I don’t know if it’s my impatience, the application methods, or the paper, but it’s just not working out like I would expect. Here’s the best transfer that I drew on top of.

The hand didn’t come up at all and I should have left it, but I tried to fix it with ink. I made it worse and since taking this photo, I haven’t managed to improve it. If I can master the transfer method, I’ll redo this photo because I think it’s got some potential for it.

For week 10 I need to:

*look into new shoes

*play with a puppy

*master this transfer technique

*submit to some art shows

*take photos of people as references for future portraits.

*buy a coat (it snowed yesterday!)

*research research research

-Megan