This started out as an exercise, but what started out as a few hours in the studio became a whole day, a whole school day that is, and other things were neglected while I played with paint and paper, stencils, stamps & rollers.
A shape print is the first print you pull off your plate. The 2nd print is a detail or a “ghost print.” In gelatin printmaking, the yummy details are often in the ghost, so it was a challenge to make interesting compositions by layering shape prints. Mostly I was easily tempted to add detail with stamps, which was cheating a little, but I did a few straight up.
In the midst of all that, each shape print yields a detail print and I found myself layering detail upon detail.
The poses here are trikonasana and parivrtta trikonasana, a subtle difference in silhouette I’m afraid. The model is David Swenson. Okay, so David Swenson wasn’t literally standing in my studio posing for me but I have his book you see…
I wish I remembered exactly how I got the detail on the butterfly here. It’s a mylar stencil, it might be easier with the mylar than with the paper stencils coated with matte medium. This is exactly what I keep trying to do with the yoga poses in different ways, but it’s tricky.
Deborah Santoro 