Exploring Solar Printmaking

As a couple of you know, during the summer I live in a small town in New York called Penn Yan. I love love love it there, and cannot imagine being anywhere else during my glorious summers.  However, surprisingly, living on a lake can get a bit boring.  All of my friends live across the country, I am surrounded by old retired people and I can get a bit grumpy.  So this summer, when my grouchiness started to come on, I decided to sign up for a couple of art classes; one of which was solar printmaking.

Arts Center of Yates County
Photo Courtesy of ycac.org

When I signed up for this class, I had no idea what this was.  I assumed we would making prints of pictures (duh) and using a printing press, but other than that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  When the class finally came around, I loved it, and had a ton of fun.  The process of solar printmaking involves a long list of tasks, including: printing pictures onto transparent paper, holding heavy solar plates in the sun for a couple seconds, letting the plates dry, and finally, inking your plates and sending them through the printing press.

This is the type of printing press that I used
Image Courtesy of  nontoxic print.com

Though the experience was very fun to do in a class, it is a very

expensive hobby.  Just the printing press can cost thousands of 

dollars, let alone the solar plates, which cost about $20 for one.

However, I recommend that if you ever have an opportunity to do 

this, it is definitely worth it!  Here are some pictures of a
few of the prints that I made this summer.  I also made one of them
into an accordion book, that I will be doing a tutorial on soon!

Print by Maddy Lee (Made from original content)
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Print by Maddy Lee (Made from original content)
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Print by Maddy Lee (Made from original content)
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Exploring Wet Mediums

Acrylic, oils, watercolors, pastels, charcoal and more.  These are all examples of common mediums that artists can use.  In most of my paintings that I have posted, I have used acrylic.  In this post, I will show some examples of my work in other mediums.

One of my acrylic paintings
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

This painting is an example of acrylic.  Some reasons why acrylic is so popular is because the paint  is cheaper, dries fast and can be used with water.   When painting with acrylic, always remember that the pigment  dries darker than it appears on your palette.  

An Oil Painting
Photo Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Above is one of my oil paintings.  Oil paintings can sometimes turn out looking a bit pastelist, such as the one above.  I painted this in summer 2011 out near the Glen Wild Park.  Oils are much more troublesome to use than acrylic for many reasons.  One of the main reasons that I have trouble with it, is because you have to use turpentine (paint thinner) instead of water.  Turpentine can smell REALLY bad, even when you buy the odorless kind.  Smelling this always makes me nauseous, so I don't use oils very often.  Another troublesome thing about oils is that they take really long to dry.  Really REALLY long.  The painting above is a 8.5x11" and it took about three weeks to dry.  Not only is this annoying when you want to display your work, but also if you are on a quick time frame, or you have to get something done for a client.

Watercolor Painting
Photo Courtesy of Maddy Lee

This is a watercolor barn painting that I did this summer.  I live in upstate New York in the summer by the way.  Anyways, I had never done a watercolor painting before this one, and it kinda looks like it.  The background and foreground look horrible, and the only thing I really like is the streakiness of the wood.  Watercolors are EXTREMELY difficult, considering you have to plan out your painting before you paint, so you can leave the white spaces blank.  You also can't go over your mistakes, whereas in oils and acrylics you can.  I think that if I had more experience with watercolors, I would like them a lot more, but for now I am used to the spontaneous use of acrylics.

So these are all the different paint mediums I have used fairly recently.  As you can probably tell, acrylic is my favorite by far.  But don't take my word for it.  Try these mediums out, and figure out which one you like the best.  And remember, no matter how bad you think your painting looks, everything is better than a blank canvas.

No Need to be Professional

Another Picture of Claire
Image Courtesy of Gretchen Lee

 What do think of when you see this picture?  When you see it, you probably think of it as a average, crappy photo to throw in a box and keep for later.  When I see it, I think about the "golfing" experience I had with my friend, Claire.  Photos are meant to be used to remember an experience and can often hold great meaning to those who know the story behind it.  For example, this picture shows Claire's (sometimes) goofy personality, and another failed attempt at being golfers.  

New York Summer '12
Image Courtesy of Cole Lee

Now this picture is something else.  Talk about crappy, this photo has no quality whatsoever.  The lighting is horrible, the whole is blurry, and it looks like my friends and I are tubing on a lake of trash.  However, this picture represents a summer vacation that we will never forget.  This goes to prove that one person's trash is another's treasure;  meaning that this photo means nothing to you, but the world to me.  Not everyone is can be the best photographer, but the fact that we were on a bumpy boat ride did NOT help.

Me leaving my closet
Image Courtesy of Claire

Well this is embarrassing...  Goes to prove that you should never judge a  book by its cover.  At school I appear to a quiet bore, and at home I just come out of my shell.  Although Claire captured this picture with a professional camera, nothing is professional about this image.  It captures my personality in a funny way.

Now you might be wondering why I wondered off into this magical topic.  It is simply because I wanted to point out that not all pictures have to be perfect.  Sometimes it is the blurriness or crookedness that brings a picture to life.  Next time you find yourself holding a camera, remember that being professional is not the most important thing.

P.S.  Next week's post will NOT be about photography.