Eric Clapton Acoustic print

This is my largest print to date measuring about 75cm wide by 65cm high- if anybody knows a good supplier of larger Lino please let me know. I planned this using 3 sheets of Lino and tried to hide the joins in the printing see below. Eric Clapton is god like in his ability to play the guitar and his solo material, the bands he has played in and just the tracks he played on for other artists show a huge amount of musical craft. This is my tribute.

 

The Process

I will cover the getting the image onto Lino in another post – but I start by ironing the image onto the Lino from a laser print – one I have worked on in Photoshop. This gives you a rudimentary position of the elements of the image – after this I was the Lino with a permanent ink and then draw over the top. Once this is done I start the cutting process. I always start with the eyes and main facial features, progressing to the other elements until complete

 

From left to right: 3 Lino’s with red ink and line drawing, first cut, second cutting and final head with hair

 

Planning/Printing

I wanted the final print to me multi coloured and the first set of Lino was for the final black plate – this was used to print onto tracing paper and then this was used to transfer the image to a new set of Lino – registration is key here so take your time – I then cut the second set of 3 plates ( I will add an image soon to show you both sets) Once the second set is cut you can start printing – I had to wait a week because I didn’t have paper big enough. I am experimenting with using 1 set of Lino’s to multi print – mainly because Im lazy and also don’t want to waste loads of Lino – The main reason though is that I want to create a more painterly image and multi colours on one Lino gives you this process. On this image I used two yellows, three skin tones and two blues.

 

From left to right: face in two yellow ochre skin tones and a brown, the skin colours were applied using a roller and the brown using a small foam brush, the guitar was a yellow and a red/yellow, the Blues were added on a second pass using the same Lino, I use Tern buttons for registration. the final image is the black plate from the first set of Lino

 

The final test prints

As you will see from the three test images below the process is experimental, The join line between the 3 bits of Lino was more evident and I hand added ink on both the colour section and the final black print using a small bit if Lino dipped in ink. By varying the pressure using a barren and a wooden spoon you can get a wide range of tonal inking. Out of the three I prefer the head and guitar of two but the hands and blue in three.

 

From left to right: Proof 1 Ok but lost the arm definition of 3 and the shadow under the chin is too dark, Proof 2 has the best face but the jacket is not as nice, Proof 3 has the painter type finish I was trying to achieve. When I do a print run i will aim to get the best from 2 and 3

I will also look at a smaller head only print and a short series in shades of Blue

 

Were to buy

Originals of which can be found on my Artfinder page: I will post one on the next print run – Because this is so big I will plan to do a digital print at A3 size and I sell my digital prints through my Etsy store