Manual printing has a truly calming effect on my mind. I do find the whole process, from carving and preparing the printing plate, to finally apply color and discover only then the true outcome of your work, genuinely beautiful.
And that’s what I want to share with you. The beauty of manual printing.
Carving the rubber or linoleum plates, bit by bit, cutting out shapes and lines.
Stopping from time to time, readjusting the logic thoughts of negative and positive. Weather you need to cut out a part or leave it on, in order to get it colored or blank.
Until you reach a stage where you feel ready to apply color to the carved plate. And discover for the first time, what it looks like, the subject you just carved on for this whole time.
If you are not familiar with manual printing, let me explain the different steps, for a moment.
What you’ll need is, a plate, carving tools, paint, a roller and a glass plate or surface and paper or anything to print on.
You can presketch a subject on the rubber plate.
Then you carve out all the parts that you want to have blank, uncolored at the end.
When you feel ready or can’t handle your curiosity anymore. Apply the paint with the roller in a very thin layer on the carved plate.
To make sure the layer of paint is thin enough, you roll the paint on the glass surface first. Until the roller is covered in paint and ready to roll over the plate.
Then you place it on a piece of paper.
Press gently.
Lift it up.
…and get surprised.
You can always carve more and further. But you can never get back the spaces you carved or cut away.
And even if you design, sketch and plan your subject carefully, you’ll always encounter some pleasant and random surprises in the outcome of your prints.
The print never appears as planned.
This surprise remembers me of analogue photography. Where you take a photo in one moment but will only encounter what you truly captured in the instant the photo paper is starting to show shapes and forms, swimming in a bath of chemicals.
I took those photos of the printing process with my phone, and also in most other instances I use digital photography. Simply because I do not want to make the time it takes to develop the negatives.
But this effect; creating a piece of art and not seeing how it will turn out until the very end. Is a way of creating I look for in any creative process.
Thank you for your visit! It is a pleasure to have you around, sharing those stories with me. Have a lovely week!
(all photos and subjects are mine, taken and made by me)