Another Relief Exercise in ABS Engravers Plastic - REVISED

 I don't know how many people are inclined to try ABS. I generally like it, but it does have some lessons to learn.

For one, I suspect that it doesn't accept ink quite so well as the texture of lino. The ink looks okay on the block, but there's a tendency toward thin spots, like the car body.

But if I ink more heavily (which I felt was the wrong thing as I was doing it), the roadway got very dark, with far fewer features, which didn't help the chicken at all. And more of the 45 lpi hatching in the suits filled in. So, that's not really the answer.

I could just accept the thin inking on the car, but I don't like to do that. So, I think I'll try maybe sanding the block to give it more fine texture to grab ink. If I had inked a linocut like I inked this, it would have been perfect. I could go back in with a 1" brayer and add ink to the car and some other places, but I don't like that too much, either. The detail needs a light inking hand.

I really want to solve the problems with ABS. Perhaps modifying the plastic surface will work. So, W.I.P.




The next image is the result of the plan. I lightly sanded, just until the surface had some matte. It then accepted ink much more readily and did not tempt using more ink, which fouled the fine lines. Sanding did, however, make those very fine lines even more shallow to the point of not printing well. I had to recut many of the finer lines and the multi-lining on the suits. I also went back into the foreground roadway and did more work with the rotary cone file to make it lighter overall.

I think at this point that I at least know how to respond to problems with this medium and some of the best practices.

Lessons for ABS:

Sand the block enough to matte the surface. It doesn't have to be so deep that it sands through the color layer, so you still have that aide in carving.

It is still a rather hard surface. I tried different brayers. In the end, it was more about proper inking and not too much pressure. I found I could ink it okay with a Speedball hard brayer, a Leoball 30 Shore soft brayer and a 30 durometer Nick Phan durathane soft brayer, if I used a light hand. I think the hard brayer is the more reliable here, because it's not so prone to inking shallow cuts, and in this medium, all cuts are shallow unless you actually cut an area out of the block. But there are choices. I think the soft Brayer, the Leoball, did more what I want on the rock wall by being softer. It had some other effects, so as I said, choice to be made in carving and choice of brayer.

I have not been cleaning the block unless I intend to cut on it more, just running an impression on newsprint. The remaining thin trace of ink seems to serve as a priming layer. I have found that with ABS, I more often need to ink and proof a freshly cut block a couple of times before it inks well.

The hard material allows some things that would probably not work well in lino. Like very fine lines, 0.5mm and less, and the halftone rake which needs a pretty hard medium to work well. And the rotary file doesn't do so well on softer media. It tends to tear, rather than grind. And of course, the tools are engraver's tools not linocut.

The rock wall was cut with the rotary cone file which left a rather natural looking rock effect. And the foreground roadway that would otherwise be done with a stippler was done by touching the surface with the rotary file tip.



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