A Post from the Printmaking Studio, 10/20/2025

October 20th, 2025

Writing from the printmaking studio at the Art Student’s League today. I’m all alone in here– there are a couple of people etching across the hall. Someone showed me their beautiful etching colored with aquatint. I’m dying to try that technique– such a moody atmospheric effect. Aquatint really gives your image an aura. I wonder if it could be combined with litho somehow? 

It’s nice and quiet in here and I have  a big empty table to work on. I just came in to boost some values on the stone I’ve been working on so that my instructor Michael will be able to show me how to etch it tomorrow, then when Tomomi is in on Wednesday I’ll finally be able to print it. I would like to work on a larger surface for my next print and I would also really like to be able to operate the press myself. I won’t lie, I got a little jealous last week when my fellow classmate got to be a bit more involved in his first printmaking process than I got to be in mine. He got to actually pull the lever himself! Maybe Tomomi knew he had some kind of experience I didn’t… Anyway, this Wednesday I’m hoping I’ll get to jump in. Here’s the stone I’ve been working on: 

I actually think the values can be pushed even further, but I’m using a really hard #4 litho crayon which makes it a very slow process to build up those dark darks. The black background is painted with a greasy medium called ‘tusche.’ Using tusche kind of feels like you’re painting with automotive oil, but it’s worth it because you get that nice solid dark background. I used two layers. It was a little difficult to control on the edges, so I’ll have to go back in and scratch out some of the really wonky looking sides. 

Hmm… what else have I been up to lately. I finished the commission painting I’ve been working on, which feels like a huge relief and an accomplishment. It was really nice to work together with someone else to create something that will be meaningful to them. The image was also a huge technical challenge for me. I’m still not entirely pleased with the way the water turned out in the final painting, but I loved my first experience painting on oil ground. Still, I don’t want to post any real images or detailed information about it until it is safely in the hands of its new owner. Let’s just say this experience opened my mind up just a little bit to the prospect of working with others. Plus I got paid for my work! Cha-ching!   

I also have a new rotoscope animation in the works but I’m honestly a little stumped on how to really proceed with it. I made this motion test a few weeks ago which I really love:

The idea was to layer this motion as a cel animation on top of my recent lithograph prints, so it looked like I was walking down the street, picking up a penny. Where I’m stuck though is how to register the motion so that it looks smooth, and how to make the figure look like the are actually walking on the ground rather than floating on top of an image. I haven’t really tried doing this yet because I’m actually scared of messing up the nice lithograph background. You know what, I could just do some tests using the shitty newsprint proofs– I don’t have to use the nice final prints. I can save that for the real photography. 

Just a little layout I did to try and get a feel for how this thing might look. I dunno. Not quite feeling it?

Anyways, I’ve been trying to take a little bit of pressure off of recent work, thinking less about how it’s going to look in my portfolio and trying to think more big picture. The portfolio is what it is. The practice is moving in… the right direction? I guess we could say that. The big picture is that my practice is certainly moving towards a more fully realized animated project. Little experiments are a step along the way. Things move veeeeeery slowly. 

And that’s really all I got today. Tomorrow is my birthday. I’m going to spend it back in the print making studio, figuring out what’s next. 

–Finn