Voices (Sketch Charlotte)

Voices

I know this is a bit more than a sketch, but since it's unfinished I thought I'd share it. I came up with this image on a plate that had undergone major metamorphosis in its life. First I put a random pattern down, then I etched a mishmash of faces, heads, monkeys, trees and hands into the plate. Then I saw an overall unifying face in it, and put that on the image. Then I put down another gray pattern so I could burnish all of the previous stuff back so that only "ghosts" of it would remain if any, and hopefully pull the face forward more. After burnishing some more this morning, I went in with drypoint, gouging directly into the copper with a sharp tool. But I found that with drypoint you can make a wide variety of lines and actually have soft pressure lines which don't result in lines but etchy grays. Overall I am really happy with this piece. I added a few more tweaks and am excited about what the final proof will look like. I feel like spirit of the artist I discovered in the past week -- Odilon Redon -- has seeped into my pores. This piece is gonna be in my December show at Beet Gallery. I'm tentatively calling it "Demons and Daydreams".

This whole printmaking technique certainly has me thinking about skritch-skratching over and over and over again using pen and ink even more. I'm enthused about my current comic, which is coming along in nice big abstract black and white chunks. But I think at some point I will definitely just get lost in hatching, grays and built-up blacks as an effect of my printmaking experiences. Redon, and many others (Gorey, anyone) certainly had it going on.

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Posted by Tom on October 23, 2006 9:08 PM | Permalink

Comments (17)

Herc:

Tom,
This is really nice, man. I would love to see a comic in this style. I like that you're so into the process of creating. Brother,you can put anything up on the site not just sketches.
Peace,
Herc

Posted by Herc | October 24, 2006 7:56 AM

Posted on October 24, 2006 07:56

Rich:

Yeah this is a very cool piece and Herc is right: We're about more than just sketches.

Posted by Rich | October 24, 2006 9:31 AM

Posted on October 24, 2006 09:31

John:

I love these pieces, the effort that goes into them really payoff in the end result as well, this is AMAZING work.

Posted by John | October 24, 2006 10:03 AM

Posted on October 24, 2006 10:03

Tess:

This is strong work. Beautiful and haunting. What printmaking has going for it is the ability to build up layers and depth with black-and-white line. I don't think there's any way to create the same effect, just with pen, ink, and paper. Well worth the effort...

Posted by Tess | October 24, 2006 3:29 PM

Posted on October 24, 2006 15:29

Florian:

Hi,
I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog :-)
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day :)

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