Printmaking and Chickens

Who would have thought that Printmaking and Chickens would meet?
I love my hens. They are a great source of joy for me. There is always something going on in my garden when the hens and chickens are out foraging.

I love taking photographs of them. Can you see the little chicken hiding at the back of it's mum?

Some of these photographs get turned into pieces art.

Some get turned into prints. At the moment I enjoy making gelatin monotype prints. These original hand-pulled prints can then be used in Computational Art.

The prints are scanned into a computer. There they are often layered one on top of the other. This makes a nice combined print and can add new hints of colour and shape.

From here they are put into various computer programs to highlight and intensify colours. The resulting prints have more interest with subtleties hidden here and there.

Enjoy.

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Painting and Printmaking

Printmaking and Computational Art, byTherese Vahland

Gelatin Prints by Therese Vahland

This video shows a few of my prints.  It is a different way to show them. They are all made on a gelatin plate. 

For more of my prints have a look at some previous posts on this blog. 

If you click on Art in Labels over on the right hand side, all my art posts will come up

Chat soon,

Thérèse

Gelatin Print & Computational Art: Therese Vahland

Monoprints

A monoprint or monotype is a one of a kind print. It cannot be reproduced exactly the same. With printing on a gelatin plate, you cannot reproduce the background exactly the same. If a print is over printed with another design, it will not come out the same. The ink or paint varies. Therefore it is called 'mono' meaning 'one'.

Monoprints can be drawn on to enhance their design. They can have another design overprinted on the first design, perhaps introducing new colours, subtleties or designs. A ghost print can be used for the second printing. 

Here is an example of a first print:

This is the same print as a ghost print:

I prefer the ghost print of a gelatin plate. The heavy colour is gone but the marks and whisps of colour make it so interesting. 

Computational Art

Compurtational art uses digital means to manipulate the the print. Both prints need to be scanned into the computer. Then using a computer program one print is overlayed over the other to give a further ghost-like appearance.

This print then needs to be printed by a computer printer onto photo quality paper or onto canvas that can be put through the printer.

When combining prints this way you have the luxury of being able to try out different prints until you get one you are happy with. You can move the top print around and flip it until it complements the base print.

Further, you can add colour to introduce more interest:

Try this out and let me know how you go.

Other posts about printing you may be interested in:

   Printmaking ideas by Therese Vahland