I See You

This is a solar plate etched print

The original picture showed the whole bedroom, with the cat's head peaking above the edge of the bed. Using Photoshop, I cropped the picture down to just the cat's head. It took some experimenting in Photoshop to get the brightness and contrast, that would print onto a transparency correctly, and then more experimentation with exposure times with the solar plate.

Printmaking with solar plates is a simple approach and safer alternative to traditional etching and relief printing. The solar plate is a prepared, light-sensitive polymer surface on a steel backing for artists to produce fine prints. The artist creates a positive images, either printed or drawn on a transparent film. The film is placed onto of the plate and is exposed under a UV light, to transfer the image to the plate. Any part of the plate not exposed to the UV light is soluable in water, and is washed away after the exposure. Then the entire plate hardened under the UV light. It can then be inked and printed.

The hard part is determining the correct exposure time to get the optimal print.