Jane Beharrell - Printmaking Blog

Four horses

2012-01-15T21:29:00.002Z

Horse, 45 x 60cm, monotype on Rives BFK.

I've never really done horses before so I used some horse anatomy pictures to understand how they're put together. It was a change to my usual method of drawing from my head, but I enjoyed seeing how the muscles and bones go together and then trying to put them into different positions. I haven't studied anatomical drawings before but I think I will again as it's shown me that there's still a lot I should learn about the other animals I draw. Having said that, I didn't try to stick to it religiously as I'm not sure their bodies would really bend as much as I'd like them to! The horse above is the last one, and my favourite. The other three I did before it are below.

And another

2012-01-04T21:03:00.000Z

I could make a whole series of these. Drying and storage space is getting scarce though. I love my studio but sometimes I wish is was a lot lot bigger so I could fit in a drying rack and one of those big sets of drawers.

Endgame 2. 45 x 60cm.

Big monotype number two

2011-12-31T22:03:00.000Z

Today I tried another larger scale monotype. I wouldn't usually be able to spend so much time in the studio but the Christmas and new year holiday means that my partner is at home and can watch our little girl.

I really enjoyed doing this one - usually I have quite a few false starts but this one came out pretty smoothly. I have conflicting feelings about the subject of the print. It's the same when watching wildlife documentaries, I automatically want to deer to get away, but then the wolf would die of hunger. I don't want to look because it's sad and brutal, but I can't tear my eyes away. I've tried to show the elegant and beautiful aspect of it in this print and, as always, my main goal was to create movement and energy.

'Endgame' 45 x 60cm

With the plate after printing.

Something that has surprised me it that I really like the effect that the hand rubbing has made. There are variations and marks that make it seem more personal than you'd get from the uniform pressure of the press (I still much prefer using the press for relief printing though).

Making a big monotype

2011-12-29T22:22:00.000Z

Today I tried a big monotype. I wanted to see how my monotypes would look on a larger scale, and also find out how well hand burnishing would work (this was much too big for my press).

First I cut a piece of plexigless to fit nicely on a full sheet of Zerkall paper, then I took the paper down to the house and put it in the bath to soak. Back in the studio I took some pictures of the process (It took about three hours from start to finish):

Inking the plate.

Drawing with the end of a paintbrush, starting off with abstract shapes and making it up as I go.

Wiping off more ink.

The finished plate before printing. After fetching the paper from the bath I blotted it so it was just damp, then laid it over the plate and hand burnished it with a wooden baren.

Lifting the paper off. I was pleased with the transfer, there's no visible difference between hand printing and using the press (just took a lot more time and effort).

The finished print I've called Contortionist. The image size is 45 x 60cm. I don't think it's my best, but I'm pleased with it for a first try at this size. There will definitely be more!

Fox Monotype

2011-12-24T17:14:00.001Z

Just finished my last print before Christmas. This one's about 24 x 30cm, so a bit bigger than I've worked before. It makes me want to work even bigger! And I would if my press would allow it.

And here it is with the plate after printing:

Happy Christmas!

Running Deer

2011-12-07T14:51:00.001Z

For the past few weeks I've been playing with this series of running deer. The deer are woodcut and the backgrounds are monotypes. I was going to carve some detail into the deer but after I printed them as a silhouette I thought they looked so nice I printed them as they were. Now these are done I might carve into them to see what they'll look like with detail added.

I'm not sure what printmaking catagory these four prints fit into or how they should be numbered. Are they a varied edition? Each one is different, but I've used the same woodblock for each. Any ideas?

Narwhal Monotypes

2011-11-21T14:27:00.001Z

Here are two monotypes I did of a narwhal. They're both about 6.5 x 11.5 inches.

When I first did these I totally preferred the second one, but now after a few days I prefer the first. Does that ever happen to you? Usually I seem to stick to my first reactions. Today I had a look through my ever growing pile of discarded failures to see if anything else was worth saving but all the rest were as I remembered!

Narwhal 1 detail.

Little Bear woodcut (again)

2011-11-12T21:33:00.001Z

While sorting through some things I found the little bear woodcut I did a while ago (the blue one at the back in the photos below). It was the first woodcut I tried and the wood I used didn't cut or print well, but I liked the bear so I thought it'd be nice to try him again.

I was in the mood for experimenting, so got out a plexiglass plate and tried a monotype background for him. I didn't know how it'd work so just kept it very simple, then printed the bear on top. The technique worked well, even though the image turned out a bit dull, so it's given me some interesting possibilities to think about.

Wolves - monotype prints

2011-11-11T14:30:00.000Z

I'm starting to prefer doing monotypes to pencil or charcoal drawing, or anything else really. It has it's drawbacks, mainly that it's very messy, but on the plus side it's quick, unpredictable, and mistakes can be rollered out so easily. It also has the added bonus of ending up as a print so I get to have that amazing feeling of pulling the paper off the plate and seeing the image for the first time. Plain old pencil drawing has no such climax.

Roe Deer two colour woodcut

2011-11-07T13:15:00.001Z

Here's the finished roe deer. I used two blocks of birch ply and printed wet on wet. It's only made up of two colours and the white of the paper, but the different possible ways of layering them seem endless. I'm pleased with the gnarly horns, and still love the red on blue.

Just joined Facebook

2011-10-28T15:57:00.001+01:00

Been meaning to for a while and finally got round to it. I'll be updating regularly with work in progress and things. Here I am if you'd like to follow -

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jane-Beharrell/168318496593219

Starting a new woodcut

2011-10-24T20:10:00.000+01:00

This deer will be similar to the two colour fox I did a few weeks ago. Haven't quite decided on the colours yet - I feel I should try something different but up to now I like the blueygrey and red combination best, so I'm probably going to stick with that.

I think roe deer are lovely. A few months ago I came across a female with a fawn while out walking down a quiet track, and they're quite a regular sight in the fields by the road sides around here.

More Monotypes

2011-10-04T18:04:00.000+01:00

Here are a some more monotypes from the past few days. I did all these in the reductive way, which means inking the plexiglass with a roller, then wiping away the ink with various things to make the image (I'm mostly using the end of a paintbrush and rags or paper towel). They're about 7 x 9 inches.

Monotypes

2011-09-23T19:34:00.003+01:00

Nearly every time I finish printing a block and I have some ink left, I try a monotype or two on paper offcuts or on the back of a bad print. Mostly they have been unsuccessful, but I absolutely love doing them. I haven't had much time to carve blocks over the past few weeks with working on a dog portrait commission and having a family holiday in Cornwall (really nice), so I've only been able to grab a few half hours at a time to myself - perfect for monotyping.

I'm using plexiglass plates, which are good as you can turn them over to see how the image will look in reverse. This is also good as it can alert you to what's not right, like looking at a drawing in the mirror.

All these are about 7 x 9 inches -

My dog Polly has been my favourite subject so far. At fist I tried tracing drawings and photos of animals through the plexiglass but the results weren't dynamic at all, and that's the quality I love most in monotypes, so I called Polly into the studio and worked from life instead. I've found the quicker I work and the less fussing I do over detail, the better the results.

Next I tried making up some seals, inspired by the lovely underwater swimming I'd just seen at the seal sanctuary in Cornwall. The first is printed on Rives BFK and didn't transfer too well, leaving quite a lot of ink on the plate. The second is on Zerkall, which is a smoother paper and made for a better transfer.

And with my little girl, enjoying watching the seals at the seal sanctuary -

Two colour fox woodcut

2011-09-01T17:52:00.000+01:00

Recently I've been feeling the draw of two colours, so last week I decided to have a go at a red and blue fox.

There are similarities to using glazes in painting, as the colours underneath show through the upper layer and this creates other colours, which requires some thinking about. I found that when I was painting in oils (which I used to do a lot) I could mix a colour very quickly, and then another and another, and I'd just slap them on without thinking enough about each one. To make this fox I had to slow right down and think.

I still have so much to learn though. Can't wait to start the next one!

Wolf Linocut

2011-08-06T16:30:00.000+01:00

I thought the wolf pencil drawing would make a good print, so I copied it onto a piece of A4 lino, added more neck area and blocked in basic white areas with a white coloured pencil. At the moment I don't like to refine a drawing too much - I prefer to experiment with the cutting and see what happens as I go.

This time I tried Zerkall paper for the first time, after mostly using Rives BFK. It took the ink nicely and I like the smoothness so I'll be using it again I think.

Here's the lino with most of the drawing still intact, just after I'd started cutting:

Wolf Drawing

2011-08-03T14:19:00.000+01:00

It's funny how sometimes a drawing takes on a life of it's own. I had in mind to draw a wolf head in full profile with the mouth closed, but here's how she turned out, with her mouth open a little bit:

Trying out my homemade press

2011-07-15T10:01:00.003+01:00

Here is the press on it's new table (made from the leftover worktop material and some pieces of wood we had left over from building the studio). I thought it'd take up a lot space but thankfully it fits nicely next to the sofa:

I had two linocuts waiting to be printed, one of a bear and one of a lemur. I finished them a few weeks ago, but rather than struggling to print them by hand I'd set them aside until the press was finished.

The first to be tried was the bear, and wow what a difference! With a lot of time and effort I could get some good results hand printing with a baren, but I would have had to use more ink to get a solid enough transfer, and inevitably adding more ink made me lose a bit of detail as I tend to carve quite shallow. The pressure the press can exert is so much that less ink is needed and the colour is more solid and defined.

The only problem so far is that the press's steel uprights are slowly pivoting off vertical under the pressure, so the top bar is moving slightly to the left. I don't think it's a major problem though - just need to think of a way of strengthening it to keep it all in line.

Here's a detail of a test bear (I tried a light blue colour but I'm not sure about it, I think I'll make it a bit darker for a better contrast):

Making a Printing Press

2011-07-11T20:46:00.001+01:00

Over the past few weeks I've accumulating all the things I'd need to make my own printing press. I'd seen some instructions on how to make a bottle jack press online here by Charles G. Morgan, and couldn't wait to give it a try, so this past week my kind partner and I have been putting it together.

Luckily, we managed to cut all the strong timber we needed out of an old solid hard wood front door we'd had replaced a couple of months ago, and we had a lot of the screws and brackets etc already in the shed, so I just needed to buy a bottle jack, some worktop material, angle steel, and some threaded rod and nuts. All in all it cost me about £60, and I have enough worktop left to make a table.

Can't wait to see how it prints!

Here's the old front door cut into pieces for the top and bottom bars, just before gluing them together.

After they were glued I painted them white.

Sawing the worktop.

Screwing the brackets holding the bed board to the bottom bar

(Using larger brackets than called for as we already had them going spare).

Fitting the steel angle uprights.

The finished press with top bar, bottle jack and bungees.

Lemur Linocut

2011-06-23T13:19:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I spent most of the day making this linocut of a ring tailed lemur. I'd been inspired while visiting the Yorkshire Wildlife Park a couple of weeks ago. We'd mostly gone to see the lions, but ended up mostly drawn to the lemurs. We stayed quite late when the park was nearly empty so had some time alone with them, and it was lovely to watch the way they interacted with each other and with us. This print pictured below is just a test piece really so the quality of transfer isn't great. I'm saving the proper printing until I've finished the press (more on that soon)!

Here's the lino block, as it was when nearly complete:

And the print:

Etsy shop for my original prints

2011-06-19T22:43:00.005+01:00

I've set up a shop on Etsy where I'll be putting my prints up for sale. There's not much in there yet, but stay tuned as I'll be updating it regularly.

Click here to visit my Etsy shop!

Rearranging the Studio

2011-06-01T17:08:00.003+01:00

A few days ago I decided to try a new layout in the studio. I moved the settee along the back wall from beside the door and in it's place put the big white shelves, where they seem to take up a lot less room. Then I had space to bring in my old computer desk and put it near my big white table, to give me some much needed extra work surface, and also a shelf above to keep my books and other clean things on. I'm very pleased with it so far. Even though there's another piece of furniture in there now, it seems a lot more spacious.

Nothing to show on the printing front, but I've decided to build my own press, so I'm trying to gather together all the bits I'll need for that.

Blue Bear Linocut

2011-05-09T16:13:00.003+01:00

I decided to cut my losses with the last print and instead start over with something new. And I'm glad I did because out came this bear! First I looked at a few bear photos and did a few sketches to get familiar with a bear's shape, then when I felt I could make her up, I draw my bear on the lino with white pencil. I'm quite impatient though and also haven't quite got my head around drawing the bits I need to cut in white, so some white bits end up as parts I need to cut, others as outlines I want to keep, which get a bit confusing during cutting time! The drawing is only ever a guide though so I don't suppose it matters too much. I prefer the print to be a surprise.

The image above isn't the finished print, just a test piece. I'll print a proper, better quality edition when I have some good paper and I've ironed out some of my problems with hand printing.

Here's what the lino looks like inked up with a lovely blue, the size is about A5 -

A press would save time and paper

2011-04-27T20:58:00.004+01:00

Not much to show yet, but here's a little look at what I've been working on -

Hand printing is a lovely but frustrating thing. Either there's not enough ink for me to get a decent transfer, or I overcompensate and lose detail by using too much. Or the paper might move slightly and cause a misprint, especially just after I've peeked to see where it needs extra pressure. And print after print is discarded, to be used for proofing other prints and as scrap. Usually I manage to get more good prints than bad, but not today. I would love a press.

Blue Hares

2011-03-29T16:53:00.002+01:00

Here are my latest woodcuts. Blue hares carved out on solid maple. My dad makes violins so often has lovely offcuts for me to use. The depth of these blocks made printing them a bit tricky though! I got ten good prints of each, and a few with smudges and movement.

The maple was very nice to use in that the cuts didn't fray at all as they do slightly with the birch ply. However, maple is lot harder a wood than birch, so it was much harder to carve (birch ply is like butter in comparison) and that made my new sharp tools all the more necessary. Also, I really liked the hare blocks just as they were before printing; ply isn't so pretty.

Here are the inked blocks after printing:

Red Fox

2011-01-31T18:35:00.002Z

Sometimes I spend hours and hours working on a drawing, rubbing bits out and redoing them tens of times, or obsessively drawing out the same thing over pages and pages of cheap paper trying to get it right, and usually failing. Then at other times I draw something and like it first time, and that is what happened with this fox. I sketched the outline with a ballpoint pen, then I made up the fur patterns as I cut (I just got some lovely new Pheil tools which made cutting a lot easier). Very risky strategy, but I think it worked out well this time. If only all my attempts worked out!

It's about 16 or 17cms across. I printed 11, and of those 10 came out well. It's the first time I've used a coloured ink rather than black and I love this red. I got some blue as well so I'm excited to try that too.

Detail:

I'm back

2011-01-24T15:44:00.006Z

Sorry for the prolonged absence - I've been on maternity leave :-) My baby girl is now 6 months old and I'm just starting to make some time to get back to printmaking.

This is my first print of 2011, it's a wood cut called 'Narwhal Plunge the Depths' and is 15 x 25cm.

I've never seen a narwhal, as I'm sure not many people have as they live in the arctic and tend to die in captivity, but I have seen their tusks. I grew up in Hull and they are the things I remember seeing most from the maritime museum there.

Here's a close up of the inked up wood:

I used birch plywood for the first time and it was REALLY easy to carve.

I printed 10:

Linocut - Reynard

2010-07-19T10:55:00.006+01:00

This new linocut shows a fox in his familiar role as the sly, bold trickster of folklore. It's about 10 x 12" and is black ink on paper.

Woodcut - Bear

2010-07-12T07:46:00.005+01:00

This is my first attempt at a woodcut. It's quite small at 4 x 5" and the design is a simple sketch I did of a little brown bear, just to try out the technique. Cutting the wood was more tricky than I imagined; the plywood I used had a lengthways grain so whenever I wanted to cut against the grain it tried to splinter off, causing rough edges and even a lost foot that I had to glue back on! I'm not sure how smooth lines can be achieved with this sort of wood so maybe mdf is worth a try, but then I would lose the effect of the printed wood grain which I like. Maybe different tools?

I do quite like how it turned out though. I like the simplicity and folky quality of the bear with the woodgrain showing through.

Linocut - Lynx

2010-07-05T09:36:00.042+01:00

This linocut is based on two Eurasian lynx I saw last year at Wildwood Trust in Kent. They were sisters who were playing and running after each other, stalking and pouncing and chasing. Although they're not very large animals (24" shoulder height) they look very strong and impressive with their bulky legs and big paws, and I've been meaning to make a piece about them ever since. It's amazing to think these animals lived in Britain up until medieval times.

My Studio

2010-06-28T09:12:00.003+01:00

Today I thought it would be nice share some photos of my work space, as I always love to see photos of other artists' studios. I haven't totally settled into this space yet as we just built it last autumn so it's still a bit bare.

I love my studio though. It's at the end of my garden so I have my own little space to work in away from the house, and on sunny days I can have the doors wide open so Polly can wonder in and out and I can listen to the birds. My partner ran electric and water down there so it has lights and a little heater and even a sink in the corner - vital for washing inky painty hands and brushes.

Inside -

My work table set up for linocutting -

Polly, our rescue pointer cross -

Linocut - Vigilant

2010-06-21T07:34:00.005+01:00

Vigilant - 6.5 x 8.5" (A5 size)

This fox print is my favourite up to now. With each new print I feel I'm gaining knowledge that I can carry forward and apply to the next one.

Last week I was also experimenting with monotypes, and I've found them to be very addictive, despite not having made one successful image. I keep thinking maybe the next one will be a success, then maybe the one after that. The technique forces me to abandon detail and strip back to basics, which is a good exercise for me. There's also a limit to what I can achieve with hand printing I think, as even with my simple drawings a lot of the shades are lost in the transfer from the glass to the paper. I can see the potential for prints full of movement though, as painting straight onto the plate is so much more immediate than cutting lino.

Charcoal and Chalk

2010-06-07T07:50:00.010+01:00

I found these two lifesize charcoal and chalk drawings of my dog Polly while redecorating recenty. They are quick studies from life that I did last year to try and free up my drawing style. Usually I work quite small, and it was hard to judge what size I should start drawing so it would fit the paper, which is why there's an extra bit taped on one of them.

Linocut - Submissive

2010-05-31T08:46:00.004+01:00

Submissive - 12 x 16" paper (with room for 2" mount)

I love doing linocuts. I've been drawing the image straight onto the lino (with much rubbing out and redrawing) and then carving away, with no real idea of how the finished print will look. Maybe that's due to my inexperience with the medium, but I find that's what I like best about it. There's a lot of risk of it going wrong, especially when I'm making decisions as I cut, but I think it's worth that risk to get a sense of energy into it.

Here's what the lino looks like inked -

Linocut - Pouncing Fox

2010-05-24T17:35:00.023+01:00

Pouncing Fox - hand printed on Rives BFK, 12 x 16"

I'm still quite new to linocutting and this is the first one I've done that I'm really pleased with. Hopefully there will be more to come!