Face prints

A few years ago I started to wonder how the process of making a Gyotaku print could be applied to a human specimen……

 The best fish to print are the scaliest, those with a good surface texture. So when applying this theory to humans I knew that smooth skinned models wouldn't be so good… I needed laughter lines, eyes wrinkled by smiling, comfortably worn and loved faces full of character. (wrinkles and hair just doesn't sound so appealing….!) So… my first victim, my long suffering and patient husband Nick. Here he is inked up and ready to go…. Same inks, same process, same paper, (thanked afterwards, but unlike the fish, not eaten) .
And here are some made from my good friend Colin Lloyd Tucker, an incredible musician who willingly grew his beard longer for the occasion. We found here that although the ink washes off skin (fish and human) pretty well, hair is a slightly different matter, Colin still found traces of blue and green ink in his beard a week later at a wedding in Paris.

I experimented with editing his prints digitally, applying different colour filters, one of which he used on the cover of his album 'Shire'. www.colinlloydtucker.com
Click on the images to view the full picture.
Also included here, inking up my dear old friend Dave, who sadly is no longer with us. Such a lot of laughter that day. A wonderful face and a wonderful day, and look at the results….. Super-cool and immortalised.