Thinking Outside the Box

Recently, I was given the opportunity to create cover art for an upcoming issue of Mathematics Magazine, which is published by the Mathematical Association of America. My brother, Walter Stromquist, is the current editor of the Magazine, which might explain why I got the project (pure nepotism).

My job was to create an illustration related to one of articles featured inside. Working from summaries Walt sent me, I had to come up with an idea and then bring it to life in visual form. All this meant working in a way I don't normally and with unfamiliar subject matter. Quite a challenge!

Here's my illustration that will appear on the April cover. It refers to an article discussing how to draw an hyperbola using a pencil, a straw, and a string. The pattern on the male's sweater refers to another article about spacing checkers on checkerboards. 

Because I'd never worked in a comics frame style, I needed to research that particular kind of drawing. I studied a variety of comic strips to see how heads attach to bodies, how people are portrayed in profile, how depth is shown in such a simplified format, how mouths look open and closed, and facial characteristics. I realized that the special challenge of the comics style is to reduce complex visuals to basic lines, patterns and compositions without losing information, clarity of message and expressiveness.

It was a really fun project and I learned a lot! 

Announcing: Mid City Studio Tour 2011

Time for our biennial event! YOU are invited to my studio and 16 others in Long Beach on the weekend of June 4th and 5th. A rare opportunity to see the private work spaces of artists working in a variety of mediums. Save the date. More details to come!

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.

My Holiday Gift Tag Project

These last few days, I've been having a lot of fun cutting gift tags from remainders of old screenprinting projects. I've made over one hundred! (They'll work for other gift occasions, too.)

Perhaps my favorites are the two sepia toned tags in the upper right corner, cut from screenprints of vintage family photos.

New Day, New View

Ok, I feel better today. Self doubt - just part of the process. The life of an artist is not all glamour.

Here, on the right, is the best proof of the bunch printed yesterday. With fresh eyes, I can see some strengths. I can also see a way to move forward on this plate: the flower needs a lot more line work to strengthen its role as the focal point. The embossed waves of the background are overpowering... maybe the flower should be embossed more? Maybe some fluid line work in the background? I'll give myself a few days to mull over the possibilities and determine a course.

The fun of the challenge is back. 

The Results of My Day in the Studio...

WHAT A DISASTROUS MESS! I HAVE NO TALENT! WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING? HOW DELUSIONAL CAN A PERSON BE?!

Weekend Update

I was asked by several people whether I'd accomplished all I'd set out to in the studio over the long weekend. Well.... no. So, here is my report (confession) on what got done and what didn't in the order I listed the projects on Thursday:

1. Finishing touches (signature, labels on the back, etc) for the 32 collages called Six by Six: Meditations: I did nothing, nada. Well, I did shuffle them around a bit. I think I'm stymied because I can't figure out how to order and number them. I see them as a "mix and match" series in which two, three or four of them can be grouped in any of a number of ways. Yet, they have to appear in some sort of sequence on my website at least. So, I feel like there is some importance to how they are numbered.

2. Here is where I spent most of my studio time. These are the asphaltum covered zinc plates that I'm incising images into, readying them for their first (of several) acid baths. The one on the left is ready to go. I've got to finish the background on the other. This work - just one step of the intaglio process - takes lots of careful time and thought, yet I find it very enjoyable and relaxing.

3. The sketch book is finished... red coil added by Kent at Office Depot. It is a blank slate, as they say, on the inside. I'll keep detailed procedural notes in it for my intaglio plates as they develop. Nice to have a special place to keep such records.

4. and 5. No activity on either of these projects. I won't even mention what they were, due to chagrin. If you really want to keep track, you'll have to look back at Thursday's post.

6. The ivory soap needs a second week to dry, so those cakes must wait a bit longer before grating into small flakes to make soap soap ground. So, I successfully left them alone to do their thing.

7. The box from Daniel Smith: I opened it and put away the two new cans of etching ink. (It is always a good strategy to include quick projects in one's to-do list.)

An unanticipated project came to happy fruition. Joe installed the pegboards we saved from the pre-renovated studio. They are perfect over the sink! After he finished, I put all my brayers and squeegees onto their new home. Beautiful, heh?!

What I'm Working On in the Studio

With the nice long holiday weekend coming up, I'm anticipating some great studio time in the next few days. Here is what I'll put my attention to:

1) You may recall the collages I've been working on over the spring and summer. I've got thirty-two now. I'm calling the series Six by Six: Meditations, with each given a number in sequence. This weekend, I'll sign them all and put a label on the back of each. That will make them officially finished!

2) I've already coated these two zinc plates with asphaltum, a kind of heavy, black tar, which is now dry. I can now scratch images into the surface with etching tools, readying them for a first acid bath next week. Eventually, I want to print the finished plates using the viscosity method (explained in a recent post). This process is slow and methodical. Zen-like, peaceful, happy, creative labor.

3) The pile of papers on the left will soon be a hand made sketchbook. Blank sheets inside my own screenprinted covers cut to a 5" by 6" size. I'll take them to my local Office Depot copy center to have them coil bound. I like making sketch books. This one might be dedicated to a semester's worth of notes related to my classes.

4) I'll sit in my grandparents' chair in the studio to sift through books looking for images of birds, fish, or boats (or perhaps something else) as a starting point for cutting my own linoleum blocks for a new series of unique mixed media images on paper. I've been ruminating about this project for quite some time. It would be wonderful to have a break-through moment.

5) On the left, an unfinished screenprint. On the right, a tablet of Dura-lar transparent plastic sheets. I'll create an overlay image by laying the Dura-lar on the screenprint and drawing heavily with a 6B pencil. Then, I can turn the overlay image into a photo-emulsion stencil for the next layer of this screenprint. From that point, I may see my way clear to a resolution to this piece.

6) Ten cakes of ivory soap are drying in preparation for the making of a "soap ground."  It is a new etching process for me. I read about it in one of the Crown Point Press books about intaglio. I'd like to try this method and demo it in the Intaglio class before the end of the semester. This weekend, I'll grate the dry soaps into a powder, a first step for making the ground.

Ahhhh... a package from Daniel Smith Art Supplies. I know what is in it: two cans of creamy black etching ink, my favorite. The order came this week without shipping charges! A special sale. I'll open the box, smile lovingly at the new inks, and put them in the cabinet where they belong, on the ready.

And a happy Labor Day weekend to you, too!

Sophie, the Kitty, Dreams...

Today's Studio Session: Viscosity Printing

Viscosity printing is a good way to print certain zinc or copper plates in multiple colors with only one run through the press. This innovative printing method was developed in the mid twentieth century by Stanley William Hayter. He experimented with applying layers of inks mixed with varying amounts of oil on a single plate. The differences in viscosity, or oiliness, kept the inks from mixing.

Here is my work station. I'm using etching inks in a variety of colors, and with a varying amount of added linseed oil. First, I wipe the zinc plate in the traditional way with the first color, which has no added linseed oil. Next, I roll out another color, which has a bit of added oil, and apply it over the first as a top roll. I do the same with the third color, which is oilier, or "looser" than the first two colors.

And here is my first print! It is exciting to see it, because there is some serendipity built into viscosity printing and you can't quite predict how it is going to turn out before you print.

By the end of the session, I'd printed seven different viscosity prints including ghost prints, ghost prints with newly added top rolled colors, and versions created by starting from scratch with fresh colors. I added stickies with notes to each, so I could recall procedures later.

Sophie, the guard cat, kept an eye on everything in his usual way while I was working.

I'm Making Monoprints Today

It has been a while since I've created some monoprints so I thought I should review a bit before my printmaking classes start next Monday. Monoprinting will be Project Two for the Intaglio group, and when I do the demo, I hope to convey how infinitely creative, engaging, challenging and fun monoprinting can be.

To begin, I placed a large piece of clear plexi-glass on my work table with a small cutting board centered underneath. Because the cutting board has inches indicated on it, I was able to easily define a 4" by 4" image area by running some clear tape along the outside borders. Then, I flipped the plexi over to tape (with masking tape) the back side with an outline for the paper I'll use. This is a very easy registration method.

In the picture above, you can see the image I've created in ink on the surface of the plexi-glass. I've used a brayer to roll ink all over, pulled a plastic brush through the ink to create lines and added a light green texture by stamping an erasure covered in rubberbands. Last, I cut some image shapes out of an old file folder, inked them up, and placed them on top.

When I finished the image, I pulled the clear tape defining the image area off the plexi. This left a nice, clean border.

Here, I've place the whole piece of plexi on my etching press. Next, I'll carefully lay the printing paper on top, following the outlines I can see on the back of the plexi. Then I'll cover the paper with newprint and the printing felts and run it through the press.

After rolling the assembled parts through the press, I begin to pull the printed paper off the plexi. This is always a very suspenseful moment, followed either by ecstasy or disappointment depending on whether one likes what one sees.

Voila! This was the first monoprint.

But I continued working with the residue ink left on the plexi to create "ghost" prints. The print above was created by simply pulling the added tag board shapes off and printing what was left.

Here is the third monoprint in the series, created by adding a leaf shape that had been re-inked in gray. Often, the later prints in a series are more interesting than the first one or two because the intensity of the colors has diversified and the accumulation of seemingly random ghost marks adds flavor.

I'll leave these prints to dry overnight and assess them. Sometimes monoprints are finished at this point and sometimes they seem unresolved but have potential. Sometimes they are unresolved without potential. In that case, it is wise to simply tear them up, keeping only the happy memories of the creative act, itself.

I think these are unresolved but have potential. Adding watercolor and pencil, for example, might be a good next step. After further development, I can assess again. An accurate critical eye is essential to an artist and is something that can always be honed.

This session, in which I printed these three and a different series of three, took less than two hours. I didn't photograph the other series of three because they fit into the third category: unresolved and without potential. They were the first monoprints of the day, and I've noticed over the years that it often takes a while to loosen up during a monoprinting session. At least that is true for me.

While We Are At It...

Let's just turn this new series into a full blown two-dimensional design study review! Next up: repeat patterns. Who could improve on this clown's costume covered in multiple large poka-dots?!

What I'm Reading Now

The artist Josef Albers (1888-1976), member of the Bauhaus group, studied color throughout his long career. In 1972, when he was in his eighties, he finished a series of 127 screenprints called Formulation: Articulaton. These screenprints have been stunningly reproduced, along with his notes while making them, in a book of the same name published by Thames & Hudson and available on Amazon. I've got my own copy now!