A Great Studio Day

I'm working on an idea for a new series of screenprints about my garden. The technical part will focus on making transfer drawings by hand on paper and then translating them at the computer into stencils for photo-emulsion screens. In the picture below, you can see a sketch for my first one.

Transfer drawings are challenging because, by nature, the results are hard to control and unpredictable. Even though it usually takes many attempts before arriving at a good one, a successful transfer drawing is always much more interesting, to my eye, than a straight-forward one.

In the picture above, I've used the brayer to roll out a thin, even layer of ink on my glass topped work table. Next, I'll lay a sheet of paper over the ink and draw on the back. The pressure of the drawing implement pulls ink up on the other side. Along the way, ink transfers unpredictably in other areas, too, creating an atmospheric effect, which is the beauty of transfer drawing.

There are examples of transfer drawings on my website.