Prints and Gags

One thing I did not foresee is that I am learning cool stuff faster than I can tell you about it! I need to show you a fun little bookbinding thing we learned yesterday, and today we learned all about using a crow quill dip pen... but I think those might need videos - so they will have to wait until I get internet! And a scanner. I apologize for the notes and sketchbook quality - I take the pics on my iPhone.

Yesterday I printed the first layer of my Facebook screen image. (I burned the image on Monday). Since the colors were separated into two images, they need to be screened one at a time. Both the separations are on one screen though, so the second one needs to be covered up with junk transparency film and lots of packing tape. Any part of the screen not covered my the green emulsion can let the ink through.

This is the underside of the screen - you can see the junk transparency covering the second image.

Once I got it all protected, I used a squeegee to pull the white ink across the screen onto the blue paper below.

We need to have 26 really good prints for the Facebooks, so we have to print around 45-50 to account for screw-ups. My hands and wrists were rather sore after pulling 45 prints!

They do look nice all laid out on the drying rack. Although I look like a Shmoo with glasses.

This evening, after class, I printed the second layer of ink. This time, I used a brownish red. And I had an assistant! My mom brought Lilah up after school and she discovered she not only loves pulling prints (yes, I taught her how to silkscreen!) but she is a natural for placing the prints on the racks. She helped Robyn with hers as well and made a very pretty checkerboard of the prints. She didn't want to leave. I wish I could spend more time with her but it's starting to get dark earlier and Mom doesn't like driving in the dark. :-/

The Gag comics were due today too, along with sketches of other people. (If you recognize yourself, please don't be insulted!)

The gag assignment was to do one classic gag (desert island, board room, or psychiatrist's office), one autobiographical, and one about White River Junction. Almost everyone did the island. Amazing the variety possible with something that seems so overdone.

My desert island...

White River Junction...

Autobiographical (more "ironic," than ha-ha funny)...

The assignment for next week is crazy. We were each assigned a comic strip cartoonist to study - I got Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo. I guess the teachers got together, looked at our work so far, and decided how they could best torture... ahem... encourage... us to push ourselves.

We have to study the cartoonist's work and then do our sketches (objects this week) in the artist's style. We also learned lettering this morning, so we need to copy a page of text from Tale of two Cities... in the artist's style. THEN... we need to create 3 autobiographical comic strips (one of a happy event, one of a bad event, and one of our choosing)... in the artist's style. And answer a bunch of questions about... the artist's style. That's a lot of work! And of course, Walt Kelly's style is very different from mine, very detailed, and done all in BRUSH!

I do admire the linework and would like to learn to draw like Mr. Kelly.... but I spent this evening reading some Pogo comics and I admit - they make me crazy!!! I really don't understand them - the humor - and the weird swamp-creature language is exhausting. If anyone out there loves Pogo comics, could you please explain it to me?

Besides learning the brush drawing style, the biggest challenge will be coming up with three autobiographical strips and converting the humans into cute animals! There are no humans in his comics.

My brain is trying to remember... but I do recall Pogo making a guest appearance in The Saga of the Swamp Thing comics (20 years ago!) I'd love to find those and see how they were drawn in another artist's style.