After completing the Precision Digital Negatives process calibration, I was finally ready to make my first photopolymer gravure prints! For this initial round, I chose two designs – one using solid black and solid white and the other using the full value scale. The plates were 4″ x 5″ SolarPlate, exposed first with an aquatint screen and then again with a positive which was printed onto Pictorico OHP.
This photopolymer gravure plate contains no gray scales – it only has solid black and solid white.
I liked this design a lot, but was a bit underwhelmed by the print. It doesn’t know whether it wants to be photograph or a graphic. The idea still has potential so I’ll take it back to the drawing board. I think I will go with simplification over photo realism.
This plate is from a photograph of an ice covered pond in Boston. The plate uses the full range of gray values, calibrated with Precision Digital Negatives.
The print came out really well, especially given that it is from my first round of photopolymer gravure prints, using Precision Digital Negatives for the first time, and using the Glen Alps press for the first time.