this was a challenging sew, ngl! very happy with the results, though

gonna use him as part of my halloween costume >:)

here's the pattern i used! #sewsky

it's bonkers that he was able to get this many detailed sculpts out of a single model! i have some rudimentary ZBrush skills and each one of these would have taken me a week, probably

thank you!! i haven't done litho in a while. it was fun getting reacclimated with the process! probably be a while before i try again, my arms are still tired 😅

so yeah, that's a very brief summary of how litho printing works! it's an old technique, used in various forms since the 1790s.

I did two versions of my print, one on white paper and one on gray. Which do you prefer?

^^photo on the right shows the press bed my teacher holding a sponge while Ike applies ink to his litho stone with a big roller. photo on the left shows Ike cranking the press bed under the scraper bar, which applies downward pressure to transfer the image onto your paper.

3. print! this involves multiple rounds of applying ink with a big heavy roller while sponging the plate or stone to keep it moist, then cranking it through the press. it's a serious upper-body workout!

here's my classmate Ike printing his stone lithograph

2. etch! with a solution of gum arabic and tannic acid (aka TAPEM). the etch solution sticks to the oily crayon and embeds your image in the plate

1. draw! this part is tricky in and of itself because you're drawing in reverse, litho crayons are finicky and breakable, and you can't erase, so you have to commit to every mark you make. right is my original drawing, which I flipped, transferred, and redrew on the plate on the left

Sometimes I'll snap a reference photo for what I need and draw over the top of it to get certain aspects of the pose (here, the arms & chest & overall proportions). Not all that many folks I draw are built like me, but for Landsknechts, not-buff gladiators, and other burly-ish fellas, it's helpful!

me: never carves stamps despite having all the supplies
also me: 12 ink pads

And the print.

i always feel so much more motivated to make art than to document my art, even though i know the second part is super important 😑