Engrave for prints?

[Tom Curran]

I am playing around with engraving as a medium to make prints with. This is a bit of a challenge to get the shadowing and surface modeling. This piece is full of shading errors, some of the initial lines I cut too deeply. so they hold too much ink. Ah, next time I'll do better.

So in this pic, I engraved the plate, then inked it when I thought it was ready for a printing. I placed a piece of paper over the image then burnished it all over. If I had run it through a press the image would be much cleaner and all the detail would show.

Get started now for this year's Christmas cards?

Tom

http://www.igraver.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1246&stc=1&d=1180268718

 

[KSnyder]

pretty cool Tom, would look really nice on sepia tone paper.
Kent

 

[steichman]

printing

Hi Tom
I am an engraver who lurkes on the edges of this forum, and in fact i do more printing then guns. The reason is you can sell these over and over again. This is also a good way to keep records of gun work as well. Their are many tricks to produceing a sucessfull prints, ink type how you mix the ink,heating your plate, and hoe to wipe the plate. you will need a press to get a good job no way to avoid that. Yes chrismas card are a good seller. check out my site for examples of different styles of printing printing-engraving.com

Steve

 

[Degs]

Nice work Tom. I've been asked to illustrate a book being produced on an old letterpress and hand bound for collectors. Another area that's interesting, Exlibris bookplates, also been approached to do erotic bookplates, wonder if I can get live models.........

Nice website Steve.

Cheers

Degs

 

[Ron Smith]

Very very good for limited resources Tom. Illustrating and then printing is a relaxing style of engraving. I did a print years ago to commemorate my twentieth year engraving but I lost my printer. The lettering isn't too good and it is very small, but I sold the prints as long as I could get them printed. It helps to supliment your income to have things like this going. I have actually done four plates and one hasn't even been printed formally. My printer flew the coop and I haven't been able to lacate one, but I haven't looked very hard, Just sporadically. Often thought that I would get a press and do them myself when I had more time, but getting the time to do that too.......Not enough hours. Finding a press, not enough room, and learning to ink and do the process would take some time. Really, marketing them is the hard part, and selling enough to make it worth while. It is rather enjoyable however.....looks like you are on yur way....Ron S

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

Tom, when doing Intaglio printing plates, unless you cut through the plate it is'nt to deep. When the acid etching method is used some of the areas are much deeper than you would generally go with a graver. Also the use of rag paper would help your transfer. Check out Graphic Chem. they carry alot of print making supplies. It is best to get in with someone experienced in printmaking, its a science of its own. I have done a small amount, but only know the basics. Brian

 

[JJ Roberts]

Tom,
Your engraving I really liked, and the print came out really nice..just burnishing. What kind of paper and ink did you use? I recommend The Art of Etching by ES Lumsden published by Dover...you can probably find it on Amazon. I would like to see more. Keep up the good work.

JJ Roberts
Manassas, VA

 

[Tom Curran]

Thanks for all the replies. This is really just for fun and practice at this point. I used burnt umber oil paint, paper from the sketch pad, it's what I had on hand. I really would need a press to get serious about printing as a money maker. I don't think I'll go there. Not this year, anyway.

You ever find you get interested in more things than you have time for?

My brother has all the presses, papers, etc, that go with printing, but he needs someone to help him print, too. Just the printing is a job all of itself. His print-boy left a while back and started an Italian Restaurant. The Nerve!


This plate is really just for practice. I didn't know I was going to print with it in the beginning, so I cut my first lines too deep. I actually had trouble with my tool geometry, or was not paying attention to the depth I was cutting. From this I learned that you(I) must know what you are going to do with the finished piece BEFORE you start. Also, if the graver isn't behaving properly, fix it immediately. Do not wait until you screw up the work!
A shading plan, drawn in pencil, either on paper or right on the plate, would have been a great help. Better than working myself into a corner, and then having to back pedal to try to save my work.

Thanks again, Tom

 

[Ron Smith]

Tom, the plate engravers could adjust the width and depth of line if necessary by burnishing. Having slight indentions in the plate is a non issue in plate engraving, but it of course is better like you say, to plan the work before you make the mistake. As long as the plate is polished, it won't hold ink, so burnish marks won't usually show in the print if your burnisher is extremely hard tempered and polished to a mirror finish, but they can be worked over this way to some degree. Just a little suggestion that might help in the future......Ron S

 

[Tom Curran]

Thanks, Ron. This plate is steel, harder to burnish than copper, but it would still work. The burnishing would close the top of line a bit, the line then holding less ink?

I have heard of, but not tried, pounding the plate from the back, finishing off the surface again, and re-engraving the whole area. You can fill the dent on the back with solder if you need to.

I have seen Rembrandt prints where he scraped out entire areas and re-engraved new scenery or people. The archives have the first impresions, and the finished prints are missing some of the first run details.

 

[SamW]

Wood engraving is another method along these lines. It is done in the end grain, using burins, but the ink is held by the surface, not the cuts so is "backwards" to plate engraving. Prints are easily done with burnishing the paper over the wood block. This method was used for book illustrations many years ago.

S

 

[Deland]

Tom,
For just burnishing you got a nice print.
I engrave for a printing company that prints graduation announcements. I engrave the school's crest that you see on announcements. Hopefully I can figure out the sizing and posting of pictures. I'm going to try and post a thread some time with samples of the dies along with a finished printed crest.(if all goes well)