likin' litho

[salart]

I posted these in printmaking but wanted you guys to see too-(since this is where I usually hang!)I did a 4 day workshop at Muskat Studios in Somerville, MA- this is what I produced...
I have access to a litho press, but unsure if I am up to setting up all I need to do litho- it is a fabulous method but a teensy bit complex....although not as bad as I thought it would be....

[Smileawhyl]

I love it, especially the coke cooler and the last living room picture. I've never done lithography. Could you give me the short skinny?

[surreal]

I like your lithos very much!
Love the attention to detail.
:)

[salart]

I love it, especially the coke cooler and the last living room picture. I've never done lithography. Could you give me the short skinny?
Well, litho is cool because you get to draw with these nice greasy crayons on a plate or stone...And the drawing looks the same except reversed- then you have to do a bunch of crazy sort of toxic steps and then you get to print a million of them- which is great..but it is a lot of work... Printmaking is a whole new world!Thanks for the good feedback!

[dragoni689]

Litho, or Lithography, is almost always based on the idea that grease and water do not mix.

You draw on an absorbant or chemically midfiable surface, traditionally a flat sheet of smoothe limestone, with a greasy impliment (known as tusche- just grease and pigment and some wax, sort of like oil pastel) and then treat that surface with a gum arabic based (yes, the same stuff for watercolour) hydrophillic acid (or water-soluble, and therefore grease repellant), which modifies (or "etches") the undrawn or unworked surface to accept water

then you allow the surface to dry and proceed to treat it with an acid which then breaks down the GREASED areas of the surface, and allows the fats from the grease to actually penetrate the stone and chemically changes it to accept oil and grease easily- thus repelling water on those areas.

you then proceed to wet the surface with water, establishing a positive and negative area of the image- this allows for the transfer of grease based inks to the worked areas of the image which are able to accept them. the inks are then carefully rolled on with a brayer, a piece of paper set overtop them, and the whole thing runs through the press.

Traditional plate materials are made from stone (smoothely ground limestone), some newer plates are Ball Grained alluminum and some various forms of absorbant or chemically modifiable plastic, like polyseter plates; some people also use several types of rag paper plates treated with a special solution.

Lithography is complicated, but a rewarding and very process based medium which yields a high edition number. I have found it to be thus far enjoyable and incredibly versatile.

[Gonzalo Golpe]

Oh, what a beautiful works!Love specially the Coca Cola machine :D

Zalo

[salart]

Thank you for all your positive feedback! Maybe I will set up the litho studio-it's quite an undertaking but I have the press- which is the key element.I 'll let you know if it comes to pass!
sally