Polyester Plate Lithography Experiments
I had some fun this weekend re-exploring polyester plate (aka “pronto plate”) lithography. I’ve never really been super-successful with it (and wasn’t this time either LOL) but had the itch to do some printmaking. I have to say, working in Oil Pastels and Acrylics is kind of… boring… compared to printmaking. I just wish it wasn’t so hard!
Polyester plates are paper-like but more waxy/slippery. I drew on it with a China Marker and Litho pencil, which was FUN. Something about the greasy pencils sliding over the slick surface…eeeee! So nice! Makes it easy to get into “the zone.” 
Anyway, the picture above is the plate. Below, I’ve started “etching” it with a mixture of gum arabic and water. You need to keep the plate wet with this solution while you roll the ink, or else the plate scums up. I’ve always found this really irritating, lol. Water gets ALL over. The brayer slides uncontrollably. It makes everything a complete disaster area.
There’s also a delicate balance between under-inking the plate and over-inking it. If you under-ink, the print comes out of the press very light:
… but if you over-ink, the print comes out really dark:
…and once you over-ink, it’s almost impossible to get the plate back to normal- it’s essentially ruined.
I used Seth Cole Vellum which I love for woodcuts/linocuts, but sadly all the wetness involved in Lithography printing did a number on it. I now have 7 under- or over-inked prints curled and warped to oblivion.
So the plate litho experiment kind of bombed, but it was fun anyway and I’m going to try to use my Jackie sketch (with his super-large Caterpillar toy, $12 Country Max!) in another medium. I was going to try Oil Pastel, but maybe monotype. Mmmm…. we’ll see.
Jen