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We could all use a hug...❤️💚

[artbylmj]

Etching Workshop

I was lucky enough to get on a list for an etching print induction. It was a small group but I applied in the nick of time. We had to have two images prepared for the two day induction. I didn’t want to etch my illustrations so I decided to use photographs instead. Looking through my album I came across two photos, one of me and Steve and the other of me and my mum. I read the back and realized that they were taken on the same day. My mum had mentioned that my father went with us on a day out at the Dockyard but it never clicked that these were the photos from that day. The only day we went out as a full family. It felt important so I decided to use the photos.

I needed to edit the photos to make sure they would be ready to start the induction straight away.I scanned my photos onto my memory stick and then edited them into Photoshop, I had to put it into grayscale, invert the image and flip the canvas horizontally. Which left  me with a very dark, reversed odd looking image. I then printed the images out onto plain cartridge paper.  When I arrived at the workshop we were talked through the process and were taught about the history of etching prints and shown examples of beautifully intricate prints. We were told that we were doing photo prints but good draw into our plates later on if we wanted to add detail.

Firstly we had to expose our screens which was simple enough for me as I had worked with screen printing in my last project. Whilst the screens exposed we were each given two metal plates, on steel and one zinc. We were told to polish and buff the metal so we could get the best possible prints. After this we used a silkscreen to print our images onto our metal plates. We used special acid resistant liquid to print our image.

We let our plates dry and then it was on to the next step, We needed to coat the back of our plates with a special varnish that is acid resistant to stop the acid from eating through our plates completely. Once that was dry we needed to out the plates into an acid bath. Different baths and times for zinc and steel. Once about 15 minutes had passed the plates were ready. The acid had eaten away at the exposed metal, leaving shallow indents into the plate. We rinsed the plates thoroughly and cleaned them. Once they were dry they were ready to print on the following day.

The next day we were walked through the process and shown different techniques by the tech who has over 20 years of experience in the industry. Now it was my turn to try my very first print. The process was easy but lengthy. We had to coat our plates with thick oily printing ink, rubbing it into all the crevices of the etching. Then slowly and gently rub the excess ink off of the plate. Then lay tissue paper on the printing press bed, lay our plate down, print side up. Take some paper, that was soaking in the sink, press it between two blotting pages and roll over it with a large rolling pin a few times. Then place the paper over the print, then another layer of tissue paper, then the press skirt over the top.

Finally it was ready to print, I used the hand operated, traditional press the first time. I felt confident I had followed all the steps correctly, however my paper was stuck to the press and tore completely when I tried to carefully peel it from the plate. I showed the technician and asked him what I had done wrong and how to fix my mistake. He explained that I had let the paper dry out, either by blotting too much water off when rolling it or let it sit out too long before printing on it. I cleaned my plate of ink and paper remnants then began the whole process again. This time being sure to blot the paper lightly and quickly layer the different papers, covering them with the skirts before it could dry out. This resulted in an actual print. I still needed to work on how much ink I left on the plate as I’d lost detail but I knew with practice I would get the hang of it. The tech showed me the technique of using tissue paper to rub part of the plate complete clean to give the print bright spots to give the prints tone and dimension. 

I found myself really enjoying the process, it was very time consuming with having to repeat the lengthy process every single time and remembering to keep my work station clean in between prints and keeping my hands spotless when using the printing press. Yet I was enjoying myself profusely. I was learning a new technique from an expert and watching my prints improve in quality each time. He also told us how we could incorporate coloured tissue paper into our work, how to do a multicoloured double print and blending techniques. I did implement the tissue paper into my work, using it as colourful backgrounds. By spraying the tissue paper with mount adhesive, laying it sticky side us over the plate and then the printing paper. It was really affective and I liked the way it added texture and colour to my prints.

I am really glad I decided to take part in the photographic etching workshop. I was really proud at all the different prints I had made. In the space of two days I had learnt a whole new process and created a large amount of prints. Prints that I found interesting because they all had their differences and looked diverse despite me only using the same two plates. I loved the uncertainty of what the result was going to be. The only downside is that my prints will take a week to dry at least. So I am going to try and spend the next week thinking of a new direction for this project, in a way I could use my prints but not make it about my father like my last project.

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Young Mario, Young Luigi, and Inspector Palm redraw (across the years)

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Context for those who don’t know: So I long time ago (when I was much younger and less experienced) I envisioned a scenario where Mario and Luigi grew up in the Mushroom Kingdom instead of Brooklyn, and the many adventures they would get into before their adult years. I created an OC they would interact off of; Chief Inspector Palm. “Inspector Palm is head of the Mushroom Kingdom Police Force, but ultimately acts a bit of a high boots. He's not a bad guy per say, he just doesn't trust that two children who are destined to become the famous heroes of the Mushroom World, can help him with his job. Thus he spends countless hours chasing them away; or ironically trying to catch them if they somehow (more than often) go against his wishes and try to "meddle in his affairs" anyway! Spoilers: he warms up to them eventually.”

(from my previous redraw in 2016)

As you can see, I had redrawn this before, but recently got nostalgic for this old idea from my past, so I decided to redraw it once again to see how far I’ve come!

I really do think that I’ve improved a lot 🙂 Although, looking back at the 2013 version, it doesn’t look as bad as how I thought it was back then 🤣😅

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Sketches I made as a (sort of) follow up to this post - just trying to find my style.

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Just something I sketched out very quickly and roughly.

I’m stressing out trying to figure out my art style (again), so I thought it would help to draw out official styles and compare them with how I draw them, to see what my style is.

I’m still not convinced I have found my style yet (as it did not come out the way I wanted) but I need to try again at some point. This helped a lot.

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So excited for the Super Mario Bros Movie! 🍄⭐

Sketch under cut

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* Please do not repost *

I could not sleep until I sketched out this idea. Yay angst.

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This is also kind of an idea for a comic I've had in my head for a while and wondering about starting it or not. It's going to be a big undertaking and I don't have anything written up yet. So maybe I'll make more out of context sketches in the future. Not sure yet.

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So can we have a scene in Sonic Movie 3 (based on SA2) where Sonic is presumably killed by Robotnik (or whoever decides to be the villain) and Tails goes apes***, goes into an emotional breakdown, and starts blasting them with an arm cannon?

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Had to sketch this out tonight while it was fresh in my mind. Might finish this, might not.

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Tails sketches

(click for full size)

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The Boys 🤟

reference

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Another thing I am working on

I'll let you guess what the boys are reacting to 😉

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Just some sketches that I had to get out.

If anyone wants to know context or inspiration behind these feel free to ask.

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Movie Amy and her Piko Piko Hammer

In my version she too has chaos like powers, and can summon her hammer under extreme emotion (like Sonic and Knuckles). Unlike them, however, her power is not depicted as electricity, but more as wisps/airy magic.

As for her outfit I went with a mix of both her classic amd modern outfit. Ive seen many versions of mmMovie!Amy, but they tend to gravitate towards her modern outfit with slight treaks. Not like that's a bad thing, but I feel her classic outfit deserves some just as much love.

Also couldn't decide on a good background so here's both versions for you

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Our red boi is angry (WIP)

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a baby boi 🦊

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I see redraws around on Tumblr a lot, so I wanted to try it myself