Sneaky Octopus

A quick little thing I'm working on now...

I took the octopus from a drawing of Zoe's, then revised/edited it (basically took away some lines and added others)

then I drew each of the colors separately (Yellow, Cyan, Magenta, and Black), in varying opacities

to get the colors I have displayed so far...

it still needs something in front of the octopus, I'm going to add someone (maybe just their legs) standing on the grass, and I'm going to break up the underwater background some how....

but I should get this done today, and I'll probably use it to do a Non-toxic lithography demo

I was going to just post the directions on here, but Zoe told me to include photos - or even a video of the actual process in action...

Business UPDATES

The other day, Zoe & I drove down to Cedar Rapids, to The Shop Next Door and dropped off the Spring scarves I printed over the weekend.

The long, comfy scarves were printed onto NICE soft t-shirt style fabric, with a 'watercolor style' flower pattern (with bees flying around) that Zoe drew and I arranged

Unfortunately, you can't buy the scarves online yet. We gave "The Shop Next Door" all the ones we made!

Also... I updated the Etsy site with three pieces from my portfolio, check them out!

[Edit]

I guess when I first posted this, I put the wrong address for our Etsy site, so here it is...

thegrocery.etsy.com/

It worked!!!!

So I finally got the chance to use the non-toxic process to do a transfer onto an aluminum plate, and it actually worked!

I used a scrap piece of aluminum, instead of a whole plate & basically did it "fast and dirty";

So basically - just using the black shop mix for my ink and used old newsprint...

Tonight, I'm going to work on a new image specifically to do as a transfer for aluminum plates - then print it off tomorrow

And I'll document everything....

Epiphany Moment

Last night, I was helping out someone printing their relief print (specifically a woodcut)

and I totally started to space out (I was basically being the "clean hands" person) - and realized - that there's probably no reason why the non-toxic process we use to print on shirts wouldn't also work on aluminum plates for doing litho printing

At Iowa - as far as straight transfers go... we're really only taught how to do them using Hancolite (might be misspelling that)... which is crazy toxic, smells horrible, and isn't too incredibly reliable. In the past, we've asked professors/ grad students if there were other options, and we've always been told no.

But our non-toxic process essentially does the same thing as the hancolite - forcing the toner from one surface to another.

So looks like I'm going to be testing it out tonight...

(Oh and I've started compiling the audio bits for the show on May 1st... it might just be awesome.)

[Edit]

here's a little preview of a shirt we're going to be printing tonight - hopefully, it'll be a full-front print... Which - yea, are a bitch to do... but I always think they look cooler than just in the middle.

Although, having said that - this probably will be the only full-front one we'll do tonight... I have a few other designs that just go up from the bottom to about chest high.

update part two

This is the litho version of the image I mentioned earlier. I didn't do the black plate, b/c it seems that all of our photoplates were exposed :(

Just to show you what I mean - here's what happened when I printed the black plate:

Looks kinda cool, but totally can't be used for my image! I don't want to waste it though... so I might add some watercolors to it (like vague blobs)

Oh - and I don't think I posted this online before... I did this just before Christmas

and more new stuff...

I thought that seeing as I've got other news not related to the collaboration image, I should put up a separate post:

So I've started out trying a new way to print my litho's...

Without getting too detailed - basically, I'm only using different opacities of four basic colors to get the full range (or close to) of color. Normally, what I'd do is draw normally, then work back with my color separations - now I'm going the other way.

Here are some samples -

I already started to print this one as a litho (and I have a few copies as a digital print as well). Unfortunately, most - if not all of the photo plates in the studio were exposed to light... so my litho version doesn't have any black in it (yet). I'm going to scrounge around and see if I have a stray plate somewhere, or I'll just use a smart plate... It's only 11x17"

It doesn't have a proper title yet - It's a continuation from the story began in my Grace/Rhino print, and the people in the background are characters I drew in one of my earliest litho's.

This one is titled "The Waiting Game" - I've got this as a digital print for now, and will be a litho once the new photo plates come in...

I thought up the image while I was looking out the window, waiting for the mail to arrive (I applied for grad schools, and I hear back on most/all of them this month)

And here's another one... I think I still need to tweak around the colors a bit (I haven't printed it yet - but it's going to be HUGE)

(EDIT)

...and I forgot to mention. Zoe's doing an art show in downtown Iowa City over the end of April, with a reception on May 1st at Uptown Bill's Small Mall. It's primarily going to be Zoe's show, but it'll also have our collaborative images, some of my newer prints/drawings, and I'm going to be doing a.... well - I don't want to say "Dj Set" but it's going to be a collection of stuff each of us has written/recorded with some 'found sound recordings' and "normal songs" thrown in amongst them (so basically, a really weird dj set)

OH - and we sold more of our shirts at "The Shop Next Door" in Cedar Rapids. Thanks to everyone who has checked them out! We're going to be printing some new things over the week, and dropping them off on Saturday.

Part Two of Collab print

So here's Zoe's part of the collaboration print, basically - it's going to be either one of the two versions of me as a zombie, with this coming out of a voice bubble. We still need to also put a lot of little devils and whatnot to represent the crowds circling the bathroom...

this MIGHT (but probably won't) be one of the demons;

new image for collab print

So - a couple of weeks ago, I was telling a few friends a story about when I lived in DC. Over Halloween one year, I was dressed as a zombie and my friend was dressed like Frida Gallo... The bar we were at was set up to look like hell (not for Halloween - it was always set up like that). And without getting too much into detail -

Basically, Frida and I were approached by a girl who was dressed like a call girl, who was a victim of some serial killer. She was dressed in ONLY a fur coat, blonde wig, sunglasses, and a pair of heels. The call girl needed Frida to hold her coat while she peed in the bathroom (with no door). Also, as she was now completely nude, she needed someone to block the doorway - so no one saw her.

So the collaborative image will have the set up: a Zombie and Frida Gallo in hell protecting a naked hooker while she goes to the bathroom.

The above image is two versions of me as a zombie... Personally, I like the bottom version more - but I might have to use the top version so that it fits in with the work of the other artist.