J'adore Montréal

I love Montréal, though I always seem to end up spending long periods of time at the airport (through no fault of the airport itself). However, since this is the first time I've had internet all week I'm extremely happy for the opportunity (also, the bar I'm at makes good whiskey sours). I've been in town for five days at a hotel very near both Centre-Ville and the Old City. I had to stay at a major hotel because I was at a conference, which is too bad, but it was a great location nonetheless. If you've never been to Montréal, you should, but stay at a small local hotel or B&B. These are some of the pictures I've taken in the past few days. I've got a quite few more that I'm going to make into lino prints as well, if I ever get home. The photo above is one of those 'You know you're in Montréal when...' moments (I got cheese in my registration package. I love Québec!), thanks to their much more European attitude to, well, most things. You can bring your own wine to restaurants and things of that sort. I hate wine, but they have a few excellent breweries here, so I'm well satisfied. 

 I got in a little early and got to play tourist in the Old City. I did loads of shopping as well because the city is full of great boutiques by local designers, but those shops weren't quite as pretty.

This statue based on Robert Indiana's LOVE was outside a hotel in the Old City and I snapped a few shots because it looks pretty cool on film.

Just outside Notre Dame Cathedral.

Well who doesn't? 

Old Montréal Street - Part 3

Here's the final product. I wish there was a little more of the dark blue on the left hand side, but over all I think what's there really makes the image cohesive and gives it the neccessary depth. I'm also pleased because I think if I keep working on these I may have some less expensive pieces to sell. I started with 12 prints, and 7 ended up looking good enough for me to admit to them. If I divide up my time and the cost for materials I can sell them for about $45 (matted) and still feel I've come out ahead.

In no particular order here's what I've learned about print making after my first-ever attempt.

1. The correct amount of ink to put on the block is a skill that will take a huge amount of practise to master.

2. The registration will make or break the final product. The more anal I am about it, the better.

3. A little planning goes a long way.

Old Montréal Street - Part 2

Here are the next three layers of my Montréal print. This layer (layer 3) actually starts to bring this whole thing to life. It was hard imagining where this was going, so it was good to see some recognizable detail.

Contrast at last! I taped off a few sections so they wouldn't print and I wouldn't have to go over any more than necessary with the following colours.

Sorry about this one, I didn't realize the photo was blurry until I'd printed the next colour and it was too late to take another picture. It's was about this stage that I realized I should have kept some more of the lino on the sides. The left area of the print could really use a bit of depth. But I'll work with what I've got! I'm just too used to painting and being able to go back and forth and change things as I go - trying to see six steps in the future is a whole different way of thinking. Normally I would have figured all the stages out in Photoshop, but I'm posted in Winnipeg, home is far away, and my computer is inaccessible. So I just went ahead and tried to do it the old-fashioned way.

Old Montréal Street - Part 1

I took this photo when I was wandering in Montréal at Christmas, as reference for later projects. I've been thinking quite a bit about attempting printmaking because I could make multiple editions of books, or smaller art pieces that would be considerably cheaper, and hopefully, therefore, easier to sell.

Naturally, of course, I couldn't just try a simple print. I decided to try a reduction lino cut, which involves taking a single piece of lino and carving it repeatedly. It starts with large light-coloured area for the first layer, then is re-carved for the second layer and so on, moving to smaller and darker sections (because they're printed on top of the preceding colours, similar to the way watercolour works). This destroys the lino block as you go, so once you've moved on to the next colour you can't go back and print any more. No pressure on a girl who's never done this! The photo above is the lino block with the image (mirrored because it'll reverse itself when printed of course) drawn in permanent marker so that it won't transfer with the ink.

Here is the first layer. I cut out very little to remain white - a bit of snow and some windows. I was using the corner of my desk to align everything, to varying degrees of success, but mostly it worked quite well. I marked where the block was to be replaced after each time it was carved, slotted the paper into the corner, and then transferred the ink. I made a few on newsprint to practise and check the registration before using the nice paper. It took a couple times to get used to how much ink and pressure to use - an ongoing learning process I think! One of them turned out with a really spiky texture because I had far too much on the block. Oh well! I made extra, and I'll get used to it.

Once that was printed I carved out everything I wanted to remain light blue, then printed over it in tan. I'd had a bit of a debate with myself before I started as to whether I should do the blue or tan layer first, since the blue covered a larger area, but the tan was a little lighter. I'm not entirely sure I choose correctly, but I think it turned out fine in the end.

I didn't just make a simple reduction print either - there are still four more colours to go! I'll post more photos soon.