Re: more and more and more solarplate
Keith wrote, "I have never liked deep blacks or stark whites in my work, preferring some tone in the highlights, and detail that you have to look for in the shadows; the km73s give you that plate tone in the highlights." That is SUCH an "intaglio printmaker" thing to say :o). All the varieties and degrees of plate tone are much loved by printmakers ( or at least the ones I've been around). In my experience, it's better to have some "tooth" in the highlights (to hold some ink), because through wiping you can learn to control the degree of white you obtain in the print. With a metal plate, you can even burnish back in some specular highlights if you want them... I expect with these polymer plates, that same result can be had with a different technique, like maybe rubbing in some sort of filler into the highlight areas. But that's a finesse kinda thing to be explored later on, for me at least ;o) A little off topic, but last night my husband was looking at an etching I'd printed a long time ago for another artist. It hangs in our house and I like it very much. He hasn't ever really cared for it, but last night he told me he is growing into liking it a lot, now that he is learning to appreciate the process itself, and he even used the term "plate tone" in describing what he was liking about it. We had a lengthy conversation about how sometimes understanding a process allows one to view a piece with appreciation for subtleties that otherwise escape notice. He is a classical musician, and draws parallels of course, to the studied listening of compositions that sometimes take years to fully appreciate. Not exactly in line with popular culture and the "three minute radio song", crafted to be instantly accessible... not a bad thing, just a different thing. :o) blah blah blah... i'll shut up now and go back to the studio (where the music playing is a Bob Dylan 3 minute radio song ). susan On 3/8/07, taylordow <taylordow@sprintmail.com> wrote: Chris, The exposure times are very close to what Jon suggests, 10-11secs for a 5K lightsource. This is much less than I would have usually have exposed the plate for (45secs). From the very quick test I ran, there is definitely a deeper black although the midtones don't seem to have shifted at all. With such a short exposure/washout, I was worried that it might be uneven but it's actually very uniform, even in a smooth grey sky. I have never liked deep blacks or stark whites in my work, preferring some tone in the highlights, and detail that you have to look for in the shadows; the km73s give you that plate tone in the highlights. But with Jon's method I may have to be careful, for the blacks are so deep. As I mentioned before, I've played with numerous combinations of screen and image exposures and every time, the best was always 50:50 (+or- 10%). Keith. On Mar 8, 2007, at 9:40 AM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote: Keith, What effect did you notice with shorter washout? Longley exposes the positive on KM73 for about 3 minutes (2.5 in summer sun) and then the aquatint on top for 1 minute. I find that an interesting combo of times... Chris -- susan gravure blog at www.susanvossgravures.blogspot.com website www.dalyvoss.com
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