Site update!
I manage to finally update the site! There is now a “books” section to the site. I moved some artwork that fit better there and I added a slew of new books. Most have been seen throughout my blogging, but it’s nice to have it all in one place.
I also got rid of my “contact” page and display my email in the “Welcome” section of the sidebar and the “about” page. Hope this is not confusing, it seemed more efficient to do that. I like to minimize where it makes sense.
Have a good week. I’m going to try and keep this posting momentum going!
-Megan
Wintergreen Oil How-to
I wasn’t going to bother with a “how-to” to wintergreen oil transfers but for whatever reason, I keep getting a lot of hits for this topic. I’m not complaining, but I feel bad that fresh visitors end up with not much insight on the technique. What I’ll do is give advice on the subject and redirection to other sites that handle the how-to with better attention than I would bother.
I’ve only done transfers a couple times back in my first semester of school. I enjoy the technique, but I found that I have better means of getting what I want with my art projects. Still, it holds wonderful possibilities and can be done at home. I imagine I might go back to it after I graduate and perfect what I know.
*First things first: solvents are toxic. That includes wintergreen oil. Don’t let the pleasant smell fool you. Use a well ventilated space, gloves, and follow proper guides for handling any solvents and disposal of excess materials (common sense studio practices). Either become well informed through credible websites or have a book that can enlight you. I keep an art & safety handbook around.
*I often dilute my wintergreen oil with rubbing alcohol. Wintergreen oil can be expensive. Rubbing alcohol can help stretch it for what it’s worth. I use a press bed to transfer my work, so I cannot verify if this mixtures will lessen the effectiveness of hand printing. You’ll have to experiment.
*I apply the solvent with a brush on a xerox. I soak the copied image and then apply the paper I want to transfer it to. I run it through the press bed with some newsprint to soak up the excess oil.
*Obviously it can take some experimentation. I did the transfer (with just the figure) and drew vulture bunnies around it. There were parts I like and didn’t like with the add-ons. With some photoshopping, I printed out another image to transfer…
Then I added some red/white inks and washes. Bam! A mixed media project with a transfer technique!
*I have not transferred an image by hand, but for those who lack a press bed (obviously expensive even for table top varieties), a baren or a burnisher is suppose to do the trick. I’d recommend the baren, that tool was made for hand printing woodcut relief prints.
*Some helpful links:
1.) More how-to/tips from RISDpedia.
2.) Drawn! has a nice example of a solvent transfer on moleskine.
3.) Places to possibly find wintergreen oil.
I think that’s comprehensive enough on my side. For the most part, I think what you can do with transfers can be done with a ink/laser printer or other (better) printing techniques. It does have the advantage when you apply it to fabrics. One of the graduates in my program hand printed on a six-eight foot sheet of voile. Also, sometimes the effect of what transfers and doesn’t can prove to have a nice aesthetic. Some of my transfers would have a negative brush strokes where the oil barely touch the xerox and didn’t transfer. It looked rather nice (see first image), but it can be hard to purposely attain that.
-Megan
Collage Possibilities
I've been utilizing stamping/printing for collage purposes.
Moths! Bees! Flowers! I've been experimenting with placement for later prints.
I’ve been currently printing/cutting a lot the past two weeks. I also have been working in my sketchbook. Next post might show that.
-Megan
my artist book internship
I’ve been interning at an artist book center. It’s unpaid, but I only work one day and I consider it a treat more than anything. I get to spend the shift looking at different kinds of artist books, comics, and zines. I just think of it as scheduled research.<3
Anyway, all I do is begin the foundation of what will be their online catalog system for their library, something that would be functional for the public to use when they want to research for projects. It’s fun. I took some cameraphone photos of some of the books I see each week.
In other news, I miss my camera. It went defunct some weeks ago. Hopefully I’ll get a camera by the end of summer. It’s essential to my blogging and some of my art process/documentation. I suppose in the meantime I’ll rely on scanning and taking photos of with my phone/laptop. Bah.
-Megan
Links! Links!
I got behind on my Google Reader feeds. In an attempt to play catch up, I decided to bookmark some of the ones that caught my eye and post them here as way to expand beyond just my own work. I’m going to try and expand what I do with this blog so I can increase my posts and keep it on a regular schedule.
1. Refurbishing old books- This is a nice illustrated how-to to either bookmaking or rebinding a book that’s falling apart.
2.Chris Berens: “The White Ones”- one of my favorite contemporary artists right now. Some of his process is documented. I enjoy how much care he puts into the characters and their rendering.
3. Stella Im Hultberg’s moleskine sketchbook- I think after seeing this, I enjoy her sketchbooks more than her paintings. I’m drawn to her linework and less polished, more stream-of-conscious ideas.
4. If wikipedia was a bound book- This probably passed through the internet already, but I like the hilarity of this visual. I imagine it was a bookbinder’s nightmare.
5. Silhouette Masterpiece Theater- I’ve seen this often on FFFFound, but I enjoy the blend of comedy with the victorian silhouettes. Makes me wish I thought of it first.
6. Linomation- This is one of those pieces where I think I would pull my hair out at the idea of producing it. It’s an animation created with linoleum relief prints. Already, hand drawn animation can be a labor. Add to that carving and printing the individual prints as the animation frames and it seems to be three times the effort. Pure craziness.
I’ll try to add to this over the course of the summer and beyond. It’ll motivate me more to check up on my google reader.
–Megan
Bird’s Nest, color silkscreen/mixed media
Returning to color! Hurrah! I started this before I went on a month long vacation. Just completed last week. It’s a one color silkscreen with conte/color pencil, spray paint, and tea stain added to it. Far simpler than it implies. When you see the print in real life, parts the paper’s texture fights the print is serendipitiously pretty (it looks like crayon/oil pastel in those areas). It’s sad that I’m becoming an expert at making bad prints look good. I’m working on striping down the techniques (the school thinks I’m being “showy”—>annoyed) and just working on more immediate drawings/prints. I’ve started to work with some collaging, I hope to post that soon.
-Megan
P.S. Crummy photobooth pics of my recent studio progress. A preview to come:
