29 May 2006

Memorial Day Print

Yesterday the choir I sing with performed the song In Flanders Field, which commemorates a WWI burial ground in Belgium, and the idea for this print popped into my mind. I had a great time making this, partly because it only took about 3 hours. (I'm still struggling with time issues.) My process was a little different for this print, so I want to describe it briefly. First I decided on the size of the print and the paper. I cut some paper down to size and left it dry. Then I cut the image area and kento on two blocks. The first block I left alone, with no carving, so I could use it like a plate for monoprinting. Then I drew the headstones on the second block and quickly carved them. I carved the bottoms lightly so it would look almost like grass at the base of each stone. Then I took a print from that block and transferred the same image with carbon paper to the uncarved block so I could see where the stones would be on the final. I mixed up a few colors and got some brushes ready for printing. I sprayed water on the uncarved block and applied 3 colors using various brushes. Then I took an impression on dry paper. Here's how it looked: 

Immediately after taking that impression, I prepared the other block with black ink and took the second impression. That was the process for each of the 10 prints. I cleaned off the "monoprint" block every other print so the colors wouldn't mix too much on the block and get muddy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Annie,

Nice work. A real stride towards a viable processs for quick prints, thanks to the power of sumi (I hope you are using sumi)

The classic image of Flanders fields is a sea of white crucifixes. Did you sidestep these, or will there be a follow-up print?

Annie B said...

Hi Tom,

Nope, not sumi. This is "carbon black" from Guerra Paint. I've yet to try sumi.

I'm sidestepping the crucifixes - artistic license. For me, Memorial Day means going to an old country cemetery in Vermont with my mother to tend the family graves and this is what the Vermont gravestones look like. More like a Halloween cemetery than Flanders Field!

Dancing Leaves said...

A meaningful print to mark the day...

Robert said...

the print is beautiful. (The headstones also look a bit like floating ghosts).
I've been reading through your archives - had never heard of Peter Strausfeld until I read your post (Dec 05), even though I am from the Isle of Man (where he was interned). His posters are amazing... thanks for posting this!

Annie B said...

Thanks for your comments, Sunshinealways and Rob!