Stone Lithography: Drawing on the stone

I am thrilled to be learning stone lithography as part of my MA at Aberystwyth University. I had attended a two-day workshop some time ago, here at the school of art, and although I had enjoyed it, I had dismissed it as a process too complicated and reliant on having excellent drawing skills for me to incorporate into my practice.

However, what I do remember really liking about lithography were the patterns made by the washes of tusche on the stone. Tusche is greasy drawing ink that dries to form exaggerated web like patterns of pigment on the stone- as in the image below.

Reticulated tusche wash on the surface of the stone

I was interested to explore the process further as part of my MA project relating to the fish traps on the coast of Aberarth, using it to explore the marks and washes in a more abstract way. I was particularly interested in the parallels that came to mind between the process of tusche washes and the movement and evaporation of sea water from the fish traps.

I must admit I was quite daunted by the thought of drawing on this beautifully pristine, smooth slab of limestone. As someone who spends as much time erasing as drawing (and deleting as well as typing for that matter) what was even more worrying to me was the knowledge that any mistakes made could not be easily removed.

Needless to say, it took a few days to work up the courage to start. I had been introduced to the drawing materials which included crayons of varying hardnesses, a drawing ink and several different tusche mixtures I could choose from. I could also use a rubbing crayon mixed with meths to give another type of wash which didn’t reticulate but instead gave a more painterly impression. I had a very rough sketch of what I wanted to do and used a sheet of tracing paper to flip the image and transfer to the stone.

I worked over the course of a few days, starting with the tusche wash which I puddled on the stone, ensuring that there was plenty of ‘space’ for the natural drying process to form the reticulated marks which I wanted. I left the tusche to dry overnight then continued with the drawing the next day, using a crayon to delineate the drawing and using smudged rubbing crayon at the top of the drawing for a different effect. The marks that seem brown on the drawing below were made with the drawing ink and dip pen (this will create a very dense flat mark when printed). I had an idea that I wanted to try allowing the tusche to run on the stone and did this by lifting one end of the stone and allowing the tusche to form rivulets. However, it didn’t quite work as I had imagined and was quite difficult to control, gathering in one dense stream and rushing messily off the edge of the stone. Oh well, nothing ventured and all that!

Drawing on the stone tusche wash

Drawing on the stone progression

Finished drawing on stone

Here is how the drawing progressed after that, the yellow ‘sun’ is a circle of gum Arabic I used to mark off that area (which in hindsight was probably not needed).

I felt like the drawing was a little top heavy and managed to erase an inch or so from the top of the drawing using a snake slip stick. This didn’t entirely erase the image but it gave an interesting ghostly impression that I was interested to see printed.

I was fairly happy with the drawing as an exercise and I could see potential with some of the effects I had achieved. I am interested to see how this develops through the etching process to the final print.