Digital to analog conversion

In the latter half of the semester in printmaking, I've been experimenting with a process similar to lithography, which uses simple photocopies as its source material. This means that I can use fractals, and either render individual layers, or do color separation in Photoshop, and then print them in several colors. My initial attempts were just as garish and psychedelic as all the old-school fractals I've been carefully trying not to emulate all these years, but I was able to moderate that a bit by not using straight cyan, magenta, and yellow for the ink colors.

The process is by its nature not very exact, and prone to all sorts of random noise and distortions. But I'm finding the results interesting enough that I think I will try to work with it some more in the fall.

Paper Litho #1


Paper Litho #2


Paper Litho #3


Paper Litho #4

Golden rectangles, in blue

Not exactly fractal, but I've been working on a series of etchings that's definitely mathematical. Seven square plates, sized by Fibonacci numbers, etched with lines tangent to a curve. Printed all together, they make a rectangle 13" x 21", and the effect can change depending on how they're oriented.

untitled (blue prints I & II)



I also quite liked the initial proof I did of the plates before they'd had anything etched onto them at all. It made a print of squares embossed into the surface of the paper. Very minimalist.

More prints

Than you can shake a stick at. We had our midterm critique today, and it seemed to go very well. I had made all my printing plates and blocks the same size, 9" x 7", so they could be stacked up the same way I'd normally stack layers digitally. There were an awful lot of possible combinations. I've ended up with more than a dozen variations, three of which I put up in class today. Here they are:

Insomnia: Unresolved Conflict



This one looks the most traditionally "fractal," with iteration banding and a black background. It's a two-stage reductive woodcut on Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

Insomnia: Fever Ache



The second stage of the woodcut, printed on top of a photo-etch plate, printed on top of a larger monoprint.

Insomnia: Lucid Dream



Two fractal plates, one photo-etch and one hardground, plus a floating element from a third (aquatint) plate, done using a clever sort of not-exactly-collage technique which our teacher showed us. It's all printed on a single surface of paper. I have all sorts of plans for more things I want to do with this method, layering bits on top of other bits.

Hung out to dry

I did a dozen prints today, in a couple of different colors. I had planned to carve the wood block more at this stage, only now I think I want to do a few more color variations before I take anything away. It's always a bit of a dilemma; on the one hand, I'm impatient to hurry up and get to the next stage so I can see what these things are going to look like when they're done, but on the other hand, once you've cut, you can't go back. So it's good to do lots of copies before continuing.

I'd also like to try getting some different colors of paper, for even more color complications.

Grinding fish and scratching metal

Things are really pretty grim at school lately, but I'm trying to press on and get something done, and wait until later to worry about whether I like it or not. So I've been etching plates, and today I got as far as proofing two of them.

insomnia (2-plate proof)



Hard-ground etching from two fractal layers (Perforated Julia, circle trap and pythagorean triple), 9" x 7".

I took some pictures of the plates, too, just because I like how they look.

Extreme low resolution

This is an experimental thing I did this afternoon. It worked well enough that I think I will try to do a larger one, with a more interesting design, as part of my printmaking project for this semester.

untitled (not there yet)



Reductive woodcut printed with water-based inks in five colors, 4-1/2"x3". A simple Mandelbrot zoom with iteration banding.