Aquatint

Note from Theory of Aquatint

• Its pure tonal process.
• Plate is covered with porous ground of even texture. its quality can be fine or course.
• Fore white tone, “area are covered with varnish”/ “The whites are stopped out with varnish and plate etched until lightest grays are obtained. This process is repeated until the black is etched.
• The length of exposure to the acid regulating the depth of the tones.
• Aquatint in the hands of a sensitive artists could draw unexpected beauties from copper; expressive pictorial beauties of which others had never dreamed.
• To the artist, technique is purely a means to an end, a language to be used for his creative purposes.
• There is no point in technical perfection beyond the purposes necessary for the complete realization of the subject.
• It is apt to obscure the purely aesthetic qualities and lessen the evocative and emotional expression.
• There are two things in engraving. There its value as drawing and there its value as a revelation of the medium. The most perfect plate combines these two values.
• The work of ‘master technicians’ is of this type. They appeal to the public who admire precision, delicacy and subtlety of rendering and are often hailed as masters.
• Whereas the turly creative artist, whose expression is infinitely more valid; is often neglected because he only uses the technique as a means. His work may, therefore, be rough and crude, and he is unevitably inept in the eyes of the technician.

Matte Painting – Basics

Most basic tasks you would undertake as Junior Matte Painter is cleaning, extending, light enhancement and grading.

STEP 1

Let’s say that the action in the movie you are working on is happening in early 1900. Naturaly then, you would want all modern influence to go away; that means banners, wires, cables and cable poles. You would also want to remove any people as actors will be re-composited later.

This first step is usually called Cleaning and from case to case can take from several hours to several days. You would do it using a combination of clone stamp, painting and duplicating elements, as well as importing new reference (if available). As a general advice, when using clone stamp try to sample from distant areas and try to break the similarity between cloned elements.

STEP 2

When cleaning process is done, it’s time to do the actual extension. Usually this involves extending buildings, adding new ones, replacing background and such.

For the purpose of keeping things simple, in this basic tutorial we will only add a background mountain to enhance the look, since the original plate is quite dull. We will also desaturate the base plate as right now it’s too colorfull for the mood we’re going.

STEP 3

We’re starting to get there Now it’s time to enhance the light, which is too uniform, and get rid of that ‘break’ in the water, under the bridge, which, even though it’s natural, doesn’t look good to the eye.

STEP 4

Final step is ussualy optional and depends on the work flow of the team. It’s about grading the image which can either be done now or later via compositing (the most frequent choice).

However, let’s assume the image goes to the compositor and we’re now extracting the final frame as it looks in the film. What we would see now is: a change of color palette, a vignette effect and HDR/bloom/extra light effects.

See Full Tutorial Here

“Equality of Condition” by Roy Nachum

Elephants, crowns and red balloons figure prominently in Roy Nachum’s large scale oil paintings where texture and imagination are layered one atop another. The exotic storybook feel is enhanced by a pattern of overlaid painterly pixilation, adding more depth and distance to the viewing. The soft, muted colours are part of the dreamlike landscape, but the red jumps out, as though representing true life within the fantastical.

Artist: Roy Nachum
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Kinetic Lights by Michael Anastassiades

Made of linear tubes, geometric sources of light, reflective surfaces and counterbalancing weights, the pieces of this light/mobile rotate “freely and delicately, creating an ever changing lighting configuration”…

Some of the mobiles incorporate motors, rotating the structure as a whole or as individual elements.

From Michael Anastassiades:

A simple pendulum ending with a glass light ball swings from side to side, like a hypnotic tool seeking a link with the subconscious. Another assemblage of different elements slowly revolves around its main vertical axis. Some of the arms are individually motorized to move at different speeds, suggesting complex orreries or even atomic structures. An illuminated glass ball is slowly moving along thin steel cables that are fixed between two facing walls. The movement is subtle, a gentle reminder of life cycles and the passage of time.

http://www.michaelanastassiades.com/

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Soft-Carbon Bag Collection by Purisme

Purisme, the Viennese design studio known for its carbon letter opener has now launched a soft-carbon bag collection, an “eye-catcher and lifestyle statement in one”…

Moulding Tradition by Forma Fantasma

Moulding Tradition is Forma Fantasma’s latest thought-provoking project, to be shown during Dutch Design Week at Design Academy Eindhoven in late October. Based on traditional Sicilian ceramics that are now becoming less carefully crafted, the collection of objects reflects the state of non-European immigration to Italy. From Moor invasions to present-day clandestine arrivals by boat, elements of Italian history and reality serve to embellish the majolica pieces. The themes in this project are plenty: craft’s role in keeping the past alive, attitudes towards immigration, the effects of allowing history to repeat itself. The collection by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin consists of 2 bowls, a vase, a wine bottle and a flask.

http://www.formafantasma.com/

Intaglio Printmaking Techniques

Engraving

Intaglio – Engraving

Paul Binnie – Biography
Engraving by Paul Binnie, 1994
copyright Paul Binnie

Engraving is the oldest and most common of the intaglio techniques. Lines are cut into a metal plate using a tool called burin or graver. After the process of incising lines has been finished, the plate is inked. Then the surface of the plate is cleaned and only the ink in the incised lines is left. A dampened paper is put on the plate. With the paper being pressed firmly against the plate, it absorbs the ink left in the lines.

In the beginning copper plates were used. This technique required a professional engraver with skills that could be acquired only in a long apprenticeship. The disadvantage of the use of copper was the limited number of impressions. Like for a woodcut, hardly more than 2000 or 3000 impressions could be obtained from one plate. This changed drastically with the invention of steel plates by Thomas Lupton in 1822. Now the number of impressions was nearly unlimited.

Etching

Intaglio – Etching

Biography of Ryohei Tanaka
Etching by Ryohei Tanaka, 2008
copyright Ryohei Tanaka born 1933

For etchings the plate is first covered with an acid-resistant wax or resin ground. Then the image is incised into the wax or resin layer with an etching needle. Finally the plate is dipped into acid. The acid bites into the exposed lines where the wax or resin was removed. These acid-bitten areas hold the ink. It is one of the very old techniques dating back to the fourteenth century when it was used to apply decorations on armor. Rembrandt in the middle of the seventeenth century pushed the etching technique to new heights.

Drypoint

For the drypoint technique, the lines of the image are scratched directly into a plate with a sharp needle called the drypoint needle. Where treated with the needle, rough metal edges are thrown up, the so-called burr. This burr holds the ink very well. Different from engraving, this burr is not removed before the printing process. The drypoint technique typically produces prints with irregular, more fuzzy lines. For the plates, tin or copper is the preferred material for the drypoint technique. From a commercial point of view, drypoint has the disadvantage of a fast wear of the plates.

Drypoint

What is Drypoint Printmaking Technique?

Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed “needle” of sharp metal or diamond point. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used. Like etching, drypoint is easier for an artist trained in drawing to master than engraving, as the technique of using the needle is closer to using a pencil than the engraver’s burin.

Inking Touchups

Working with Burins for Intaglio

Video:Process for Intaglio

Combining the old with the new: digital serigraphy 'frees' artist

Eric Holch, an internationally recognized printmaker, has found a way to combine the old printmaking techniques of serigraphy (silkscreening) with the new computer technology, photo retouching software and gicleee reproduction equipment used in today’s state-of the-art digital printmaking to achieve “digital serigraphy.”

Holch uses traditional printmaking production techniques developed in the early 1900s and popularized during the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. His artist process begins exactly as it always has for the past 30 years as a serigraph printmaker. After many initial pencil drawings, sketches, color roughs, Holch creates a master pen and ink line drawing of the image that will become his “serigraph” print.

During this process Holch determines how many colors he will need and in what order they will be “laid down.” In serigraphy there are many opportunities to screen colors over other colors to create special effects. Using transparent colors over other colors also needs to be worked out in this early stage. Holch then mixes color swatches of the colors he plans to use.

Using Ulano Amberlith film and hand-cut stencils for each color “screen” Holch pulls off the film from the acetate backing, making a monochromatic stencil for each color.

The stencils are carefully registered and placed in the order they will be printed. Holch checks over each one to be sure each color stencil is cut properly and registers with the colors above it and below it.

At this point something radically different takes place. Instead of using these hand-cut stencils to burn screens and start the serigraphy printmaking process, Holch scans each film stencil into the computer and essentially makes an electronic stencil image. These black and white scans are then put into Adobe Photoshop as layers. A print that used to take a dozen screens to print now has a dozens layers in a Photoshop file.

Holch’s color swatches are also scanned in and each hand-cut stencil get changed to its corresponding color. Once the different color scan stencils are assembled and registered, the first color image to the print begins to take shape on the color monitor.

Just like in the serigraphy process, certain colors are “tweaked” in order to achieve the look and results desired by Holch. This can involve making colors more transparent, brighter, duller, etc. Traditionally, this would have meant Holch would have cans of paint out and that he would add thinner and transparent base, and remix the colors. Then these would have to be swatched and dried, with the whole process taking days. But with the new computer technology these changes can be made instantly, and a finished-state proof can be printed to check the process.

After several preliminary printouts and the usual color corrections, the final image is ready and high-quality giclees are made that are almost identical in feel to Holch’s traditional serigraphs.

What prompted Holch to develop this process? Holch has been a printmaker for 30 years, and for more than 20 years he has worked with Steve Miller Fine Art Press in Natik, MA, to create his editions. Recently, Miller decided to close his silk-screening business because he was tired of the fumes from paint, lacquer and mineral spirits. At the same time, he had been experimenting with reproducing his own artwork, and his customers artwork, with a giclee printer. After a couple of experimental projects, Holch and Miller realized that they could continue to produce Holch’s images with the signature “look” of Holch’s hand-cut serigraphs.

Today, Holch sends his hand-cut stencils to Miller for scanning and layering, and Miller e-mails the color “prints” for discussion. Several e-mails and digital print images go back and forth as colors are altered and glitches are fixed. Miniature proofs on the actual paper are sent to Holch for approval, before the final, full-size prints are made.

“This new process gives me freedom as an artist,” says Holch. “I can be more experimental and prolific since the time-consuming printing process is almost gone, and the ability to make improvements and changes in the computer means the final image is exactly what I want.”

SOURCE
* Eric Holch Gallery, 508-228-7654, www.ericholch.com

Serigraphy Stenciling Technique

There are several ways to create a stencil for screenprinting. An early method was to create it by hand in the desired shape, either by cutting the design from a non-porous material and attaching it to the bottom of the screen, or by painting a negative image directly on the screen with a filler material which became impermeable when it dried. For a more painterly technique, the artist would choose to paint the image with drawing fluid, wait for the image to dry, and then coat the entire screen with screen filler. After the filler had dried, water was used to spray out the screen, and only the areas that were painted by the drawing fluid would wash away, leaving a stencil around it. This process enabled the artist to incorporate their hand into the process, to stay true to their drawing.

A method that has increased in popularity over the past 70 years and is tremendously popular is the photo emulsion technique:

1. The original image is created on a transparent overlay such as acetate or tracing paper. The image may be drawn or painted directly on the overlay, photocopied, or printed with a inkjet or laser printer, as long as the areas to be inked are opaque. A black-and-white negativemay also be used (projected on to the screen). However, unlike traditional platemaking, these screens are normally exposed by using film positives.
2. A screen must then be selected. There are several different mesh counts that can be used depending on the detail of the design being printed. Once a screen is selected, the screen must be coated with emulsion and let to dry in the dark. Once dry, the screen is ready to be burned/exposed.
3. The overlay is placed over the emulsion-coated screen, and then exposed with a light source containing ultraviolet light in the 350-420 nanometer spectrum. The UV light passes through the clear areas and create a polymerization (hardening) of the emulsion.
4. The screen is washed off thoroughly. The areas of emulsion that were not exposed to light dissolve and wash away, leaving a negative stencil of the image on the mesh.

Photographic screens can reproduce images with a high level of detail, and can be reused for tens of thousands of copies. The ease of producing transparent overlays from any black-and-white image makes this the most convenient method for artists who are not familiar with other printmaking techniques. Artists can obtain screens, frames, emulsion, and lights separately; there are also preassembled kits, which are especially popular for printing small items such as greeting cards.

Another advantage of screenprinting is that large quantities can be produced rapidly with new automatic presses (up to 1200 shirts in 1 hour). (The record is over 2000 shirts an hour.) The documented recordfor shirts printed in one hour by a single operator is 1805. Maddie Sikorski of the New Buffalo Shirt Factory in Clarence, New York (USA) set the record on 18 February 2005 at the Image Wear Expo in Orlando, Florida, USA, using a 12-color M&R Formula Press and an M&R Passport Automatic Textile Unloader

Serigraphy Technique

A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric called mesh stretched over a frame of aluminum or wood. Originally human hair then silk was woven into screen mesh; currently most mesh is made of man-made materials such as steel, nylon, and polyester. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material to form a stencil, which is a negative of the image to be printed; that is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear.

The screen is placed atop a substrate such as paper or fabric. Ink is placed on top of the screen, and a fill bar (also known as a floodbar) is used to fill the mesh openings with ink. The operator begins with the fill bar at the rear of the screen and behind a reservoir of ink. The operator lifts the screen to prevent contact with the substrate and then using a slight amount of downward force pulls the fill bar to the front of the screen. This effectively fills the mesh openings with ink and moves the ink reservoir to the front of the screen. The operator then uses a squeegee (rubber blade) to move the mesh down to the substrate and pushes the squeegee to the rear of the screen. The ink that is in the mesh opening is pumped or squeezed by capillary action to the substrate in a controlled and prescribed amount, i.e. the wet ink deposit is equal to the thickness of the mesh and or stencil. As the squeegee moves toward the rear of the screen the tension of the mesh pulls the mesh up away from the substrate (called snap-off) leaving the ink upon the substrate surface.

There are three types of screenprinting presses. The ‘flat-bed’ (probably the most widely used), ‘cylinder’, and ‘rotary’.

Textile items are printed in multi-color designs using a wet on wet technique, while graphic items are allowed to dry between colors that are then printed with another screen and often in a different color.

The screen can be re-used after cleaning. However if the design is no longer needed, then the screen can be “reclaimed”, that is cleared of all emulsion and used again. The reclaiming process involves removing the ink from the screen then spraying on stencil remover to remove all emulsion. Stencil removers come in the form of liquids, gels, or powders. The powdered types have to be mixed with water before use, and so can be considered to belong to the liquid category. After applying the stencil remover the emulsion must be washed out using a pressure washer.

Most screens are ready for recoating at this stage, but sometimes screens will have to undergo a further step in the reclaiming process called dehazing. This additional step removes haze or “ghost images” left behind in the screen once the emulsion has been removed. Ghost images tend to faintly outline the open areas of previous stencils, hence the name. They are the result of ink residue trapped in the mesh, often in the knuckles of the mesh, those points where threads overlap.

While the public thinks of garments in conjunction with screenprinting, the technique is used on tens of thousands of items, decals, clock and watch faces, balloons and many more products. The technique has even been adapted for more advanced uses, such as laying down conductors and resistors in multi-layer circuits using thin ceramic layers as the substrate.

Serigraphy past to present

Credit is generally given to the artist Andy Warhol for popularizing screen printing identified as serigraphy, in the United States. Warhol is particularly identified with his 1962 depiction of actress Marilyn Monroe screen printed in garish colors.^[9][10]

American entrepreneur, artist and inventor Michael Vasilantone would develop and patent^[11] a rotary multicolor garment screen printing machine in 1960. The original rotary machine was manufactured to print logos and team information on bowling garments but soon directed to the new fad of printing on t-shirts. The Vasilantone patent was soon licensed by multiple manufacturers, the resulting production and boom in printed t-shirts made the rotary garment screen printing machine the most popular device for screen printing in the industry. Screen printing on garments currently accounts for over half of the screen printing activity in the United States. ^[12]

Graphic screenprinting is widely used today to create many mass or large batch produced graphics, such as posters or display stands. Full color prints can be created by printing in CMYK(cyan, magenta, yellow and black (‘key’)). Screenprinting is often preferred over other processes such as dye sublimation or inkjet printing because of its low cost and ability to print on many types of media.

Screen-printing lends itself well to printing on canvas. Robert Rauschenberg, Warhol, and many other artists have used screen-printing this way