this was a challenging sew, ngl! very happy with the results, though
24.10.2025 15:07 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0@racheldavissmith.art.bsky.social
Illustration, printmaking, comics, sculpture, miniatures, fiber art. Did I leave anything out? Probably!! ๐ผ๏ธ https://racheldavissmith.art/ ๐ท https://www.instagram.com/racheldeesmith/
this was a challenging sew, ngl! very happy with the results, though
24.10.2025 15:07 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0gonna use him as part of my halloween costume >:)
24.10.2025 15:06 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Photo of me holding a handmade stuffed frog made from quilting cotton. The eyes are painted.
Photo of the stuffed frog sitting cross-legged.
made a posable frog stuffie. for my mental health
24.10.2025 15:02 โ ๐ 25 ๐ 5 ๐ฌ 3 ๐ 1it's bonkers that he was able to get this many detailed sculpts out of a single model! i have some rudimentary ZBrush skills and each one of these would have taken me a week, probably
22.10.2025 19:24 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0This is like watching up-close magic.
22.10.2025 19:16 โ ๐ 22 ๐ 3 ๐ฌ 2 ๐ 0thank you!! i haven't done litho in a while. it was fun getting reacclimated with the process! probably be a while before i try again, my arms are still tired ๐
22.10.2025 19:22 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Photo of two Theo prints hanging on the wall, one on bright white paper and one on taupe-ish warm gray paper.
so yeah, that's a very brief summary of how litho printing works! it's an old technique, used in various forms since the 1790s.
I did two versions of my print, one on white paper and one on gray. Which do you prefer?
^^photo on the right shows the press bed my teacher holding a sponge while Ike applies ink to his litho stone with a big roller. photo on the left shows Ike cranking the press bed under the scraper bar, which applies downward pressure to transfer the image onto your paper.
22.10.2025 14:16 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 03. print! this involves multiple rounds of applying ink with a big heavy roller while sponging the plate or stone to keep it moist, then cranking it through the press. it's a serious upper-body workout!
here's my classmate Ike printing his stone lithograph
Photo of the plate covered in a brownish solution of gum and TAPEM.
2. etch! with a solution of gum arabic and tannic acid (aka TAPEM). the etch solution sticks to the oily crayon and embeds your image in the plate
22.10.2025 14:06 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Digital pencil drawing of the Theo image.
Theo image reversed and redrawn on an aluminum litho plate. The values and type of marks are noticeably different between the two.
1. draw! this part is tricky in and of itself because you're drawing in reverse, litho crayons are finicky and breakable, and you can't erase, so you have to commit to every mark you make. right is my original drawing, which I flipped, transferred, and redrew on the plate on the left
22.10.2025 13:49 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Theo, 2025, plate lithograph on gray Rives BFK. A grayscale drawing of a sleepy tabby cat partially covered by a blanket.
check out my new print! it's a plate lithograph of my cat Theo. a li-Theo-graph, if you will ๐บ
if you're curious about the process, quick thread below about how litho printing works ๐งต
Sometimes, I ask myself, if I'm doing too many things between children's book illustrations, watercolor paintings, film photography and abstract landscape paintings and the answer is 'Yes', but then I ask myself if I want to drop something and do less and the answer is 'No'. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
17.10.2025 12:17 โ ๐ 95 ๐ 2 ๐ฌ 6 ๐ 0Steep ๐ง 
#art
every day I pretend to be fine with the fact that I can not take a 3 day break from drawing without feeling rusty
17.10.2025 10:43 โ ๐ 21 ๐ 2 ๐ฌ 3 ๐ 0Pencils for a Cestus-type gladiator drawn over a photograph of the artist standing in a boxing pose. The arms and chest are pretty much direct traces of the pose underneath, with details added
Sometimes I'll snap a reference photo for what I need and draw over the top of it to get certain aspects of the pose (here, the arms & chest & overall proportions). Not all that many folks I draw are built like me, but for Landsknechts, not-buff gladiators, and other burly-ish fellas, it's helpful!
16.10.2025 23:09 โ ๐ 127 ๐ 20 ๐ฌ 3 ๐ 5Photo of still life underpainting with parts of the background filled in. The painting depicts various gourds and fruits sitting on a table covered in a white cloth.
Photo of the full color finished painting.
baby's first full color oil painting! still life for my intro painting class. meant to take more process photos but I forgot ๐
13.10.2025 21:49 โ ๐ 5 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0me: never carves stamps despite having all the supplies
also me: 12 ink pads
a very happy boy, arms raised, legs apart (probably jumping), one hand holding a keyboard, the other holding a mouse, fluid coming out of his sparkling eyes, wearing a t-shirt that reads 'i've done it!! behind him are illustrations of fake 'congratulations', 'you've won' and 'you saved the world' video game screens.
login, magazine, cover (1994) archive.org/details/logi...
13.10.2025 08:34 โ ๐ 248 ๐ 68 ๐ฌ 3 ๐ 3tea kettle guys
12.10.2025 23:37 โ ๐ 3087 ๐ 1284 ๐ฌ 33 ๐ 5A linocut print of a skull with a flower poking out the top printed on pink paper.
And the print.
13.10.2025 11:53 โ ๐ 33 ๐ 6 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0A squiggly wibbly skull in oil pastels on grey paper, slightly collapsed
Oil pastel drawing of Matthew Corbett, a white man with reddish brown hair, Sooty Sweep and Soo, three hand puppets, part of a 1980s tv programme thatโs fondly remembered by some
Oh go on then. Iโve also added the skull and Corbett. These are a bloody bargain, thereโs 45 years of wisdom infused and contained within them 
www.chloecumming.com
i always feel so much more motivated to make art than to document my art, even though i know the second part is super important ๐
10.10.2025 15:56 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0screenshot with blue text over a white background. vectorized versions of my handwriting where contextual alternates are used to add variety throughout. copy reads: ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;?!&
screenshot with blue text over a white background. vectorized versions of my handwriting where contextual alternates are used to add variety throughout. copy reads: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow. My girl wove six dozen plaid jackets before she quit.
still playing with this! now we got a first pass on lowercase and key symbols!
09.10.2025 17:32 โ ๐ 28 ๐ 6 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0the shirt! the color isn't quite what I expected, but I actually really like the blue bleed. pond vibes for sure ๐ธ
03.10.2025 21:21 โ ๐ 6 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0a hot green dye bath has real "witch's cauldron" vibes
03.10.2025 18:05 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Photo of a green dye bath in a white bucket. I am using a long metal spoon to hold up a bundled T-shirt in the process of being tie-dyed.
cooking up another delicious T-shirt
03.10.2025 18:04 โ ๐ 5 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 1Flat, graphic poster of a Whooping Crane standing in the negative space of many Sandhill Cranes. The poster reads "The Great Midwest Crane Fest - Nov. 15-16, 2025 Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Poster I made for the Great Midwest Crane Fest!
30.09.2025 13:41 โ ๐ 1781 ๐ 338 ๐ฌ 45 ๐ 12