A post I made on Facebook while at Ink Curds:
Me explaining my process: “So I 3D printed a skull, then I photographed it, then I made a drawing from the photograph, then I 3D printed plates from the drawing, then I made a relief print using the plates… oh, and I made the paper with a 3D printed mould & deckle, and used 3D printed registration pins for the two-color print… I guess I’m a printmaker.”
Right, so the print you see above is a two-color relief print of a skull. Down below you can see the two printing plates. (Remember than I 3D print my plates.)
I’m not the best at just drawing something, and I almost always use reference images, and occasionally do tracings of photos. This comes into play with this particular print.
Back in 2019 I 3D printed this skull, which I got around to posting about in 2020. It took a while because I sanded it, coated it, painted it, and then (attempted) to weather it. Hey, sometimes projects take a while!
Then around February 2024 I ended up turning the photo into a two-color illustration that I could use to make the two printing plates.
So we started as a 3D file that was printed to become a real-world object, then photographed it and made it into a file. I then used that file to create two printing plates and printed it.
But wait, there’s more!
I also ended up using that photo for a digital illustration…
Ah yes, here’s a post about my Skull Sketch from May 2024.
The thing I really like about this process is that I used my own materials throughout the process (with the exception of the original STL file of the skull) and I didn’t need to look for images that I did not create. I will freely admit right here that I probably get a little too close with some of the reference images I’ve used in the past, and I’d like to get fully away from that so my own photos and illustrations as subject matter for prints is a goal moving forward.