Printing!

The last few days basically consisted of me generating some ideas and playing around with ink. I have really gotten into printing, I find you can get some very painterly results and ink as a medium allows for endless fun. It is very similar to oil paint except that its less fluid but can be controlled in a similar manner. Both use white spirits as a means to dilute and create a more wash effect. If you have some groundwork in painting then printing will be no problem to you. You can even create really loose, sketch-like effects with drypoint etching. I absolutely fell in love with this as its results reminded me of Raymond Pettibon for some reason.

I am trying not go into it with an exact idea of what I want to do; I just want to play around and see what happens. I like the idea of the unexpected. I am trying to experiment and grab a foothold of how materials can be manipulated. I love the manner in which you cannot be certain what your print will look like until you have it printed. Printing also seems more immediate and less expendable than painting. Images can be reprinted time and time again and edited and affected in many abstract ways. I find my thought processes work in a more creative manner and seem less anxious regarding the result. I feel I need this as I am the kind of person who is sometimes afraid to attempt anything mindlessly. I needed this immensely because I felt very upset and drained after the two weeks previous. It was a sort of exorcism of the manner in which I previously worked and an effort to try be more basic and unlearned in my approach.