Printmaking at Corcoran College of Art & Design

I've been living in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington DC for the past four months, and I've been spending a lot of time at the Georgetown campus of Corcoran College, learning new printmaking techniques from Georgia Deal. My goal was to try out as many different processes as possible - some attempts were more successful than others. I came out of it with a much better feel for the huge range of methods and results that are possible with printmaking.

line etching / aquatint, 9" x 12"

The print above is the next installment in the series that began with the seahorse skeletons and fishing line print from '07. My intention is to create a series of black-and-white prints that depict beautiful and somewhat mysterious scenes from nature - things left behind that tell a story or offer clues.

line etching / aquatint, 9" x 12"

Decided to try printing with color and experiment with registration techniques - "ghost" wings and aquatint background were created as a separate plate.

monoprint / gum transfer, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4"

This was the best result after many frustrating attempts at gum transfer with a monoprint technique. I had a lot of trouble getting the gum transfer to be as crisp as I'd like (on the little lemur)... but then, I suppose crisp lines are what etching is for. Using a plexi plate to add multiple colors and patterns was new and fun for me though.

photo-etching, 8 1/2" x 3 1/2"

Used a simple sketch to try out the photo intaglio ("ImagON" film) technique. I can see how this method would be useful in some applications, but in this case it came out a bit too grainy for me. Since I'm not really doing work that incorporates digital imagery at this point, it seems my drawings are best-suited to traditional etching techniques.I'm glad I tried it for future reference.

chine colle, 8 1/2" x 3 1/2"

First attempt at chine colle. The gears are gum transfer, mouse is from the photo-etch plate, and the quote was letterpress printed (after the print was dried flat). I used various scraps of rice paper to try the chine colle technique to add color and texture to the piece.

chine colle, 8 1/2" x 3 1/2"

Another sample from the chine colle experiments. Tried using white ink on black paper for the first time, and I like it.