Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Fall Oak Print

My latest piece is titled "Fall Oak Print." It is a 4-Color Intaglio-Type Drypoint Print. In order to create this piece, I needed to carve four separate printmaking plates. The journey started with a colored pencil drawing of my subject as the guide.
I cut four plastic plates to the same size as the colored pencil drawing. After that, each plate was assigned one of four colors: Yellow, Red, Blue or Black.
With this in mind, I began to scratch lines into each plate with a Drypoint Needle. The plastic allowed me to see through the plate in order to carve the correct color in the right spot. For example, anywhere I saw yellow (or a color with yellow in it, like green or orange) in the image, I would create marks on the plate that would carry yellow ink from the plate to my printmaking paper.
Once every plate was fully carved, it was time to ink them. Starting with the Yellow plate, I carded the ink onto the surface.
After the plate was fully inked, the excess ink was removed by gently wiping the plate with a piece of cheesecloth.
I repeated the same steps using the Red, Blue and Black plates with their respective ink.


Finally, all four plates were inked. It was time to print all four onto the same piece of paper in the same spot in order to create the print. I cut a piece of watercolor paper to the right size and let it soak in water for over 20 minutes. Once it had soaked, the paper was blotted off to make it just damp enough to print on.

The plates were printed in order of light to dark using a Richeson Baby Press. First the Yellow plate was printed.
Then the Red plate was printed, after that the Blue plate and finally the Black plate.

Joseph D. Tarantelli, Fall Oak Print, 2014, 4-Color Intaglio-Type Drypoint Print6 3/4” x 4 15/16”


I enjoy the results! This print, or an edition just like it, is available for sale on my website www.JosephTarantelli.com for $25.00. Happy printmaking!