For my module option Lithography, I have been making photocopy litho prints – to design them I needed some inspiration and thought about my Text and Context brief. I have been making and collecting a lot of visual material for this project and was unsure if I would have the opportunity to use it all (monoprints, found material etc.) as I was making an animation. So I thought this would be a great opportunity, here is my account of the day in my Lithography diary and the original photocopies…
“As I had finished my main double layer photo-litho plate in the previous session, today I worked on a photocopy litho print. I particularly enjoyed today’s session, the time flew by as I printed page after page. The photocopy print is created by spray mounting a photocopy on a piece of acetate, this is then pressed in the printing press to achieve a perfectly flat base to work with. Next, the photocopy is gummed and inked over gently, it is then put in the press. I was impressed by how quick and simple the process was I will be doing in again for other projects.
The outcome of the photocopy prints has a different feel to the photolitho prints, they’re not as sharp and clean; instead their beauty is in how the photocopy degrades use after use which gives it an imperfect tone and depth. I planned to make my photocopy print in response to my Text and Context project, in which I am making a video inspired by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I created my image on Photoshop using: abstract monoprints, scanned and edited imagery from an insect encyclopaedia, and found imagery of a sixties model. I enjoy re-introducing processes within processes and I feel that mixing the mono with the litho print gave a painterly look.
Mainly, I liked how easy it was to experiment with the photocopy print due to its ease of creation you could be haphazard with it without fear. I chose to cut it up and collage with it on the printing press, this gave an excellent embossing effect which was unexpected. I loved the prints that were made using this process and am considering making one for next week to overprint my photolitho prints.”
For the unpredictable litho prints I utilised another unpredictable method that I had come across by accident. I made a mistake while trying to export images from a PDF and accidentally exported all individual images found per page, this gave me snippets of words, diagrams and images. It gave a jigsaw of each page and some of the images are really interesting. Below are a few of my faves.
