Reviewing the gritted surface on the Caroline portrait.
Traces of the perspex pitted and gritted drawing surface are present in the body of the print as well as in the surrounding background. The rectangular trace of the added paper to the press is faintly visible. This could provide a future experiment: put the perspex through the press with grit to establish a ground texture then lay smaller sheets of paper, card and varying weights to build up deeper gritted textures. The materiality of the impressed surface may be more apparent in the printed image. A uniform spread would create a secondary frame on the surface. With efficient exposure may deliver a subtle print. Whether an impregnated image could be exposed in and of itself to create an image should be tested without any drawing being applied. This could provide process analysis outputs. It could also provide an abstract image with a distinctive aesthetic.
Looking back to Kip Gresham’s suggestions: Shot blasting polyester.
The thing about the lithographic surfaces is that they put an organic or a natural half tone into a mark. With a chalk / crayon / graphite mark it has attack and decay; that is the mark has a beginning a middle and an end. It’s got tonal variation with pressure.
A wash made on a stone or plate drops into the minute indentations and has a fine granular structure which carries the tonality of the wash.
I started by shot-blasting clear polyester or putting clear polyester into a litho plate graining machine. I also sanded the surface by hand. All of these surfaces worked, some better than others. I made prints this way and the results were amazing, totally unlike screen prints.
