In which I make marks on lino

I’ve finished the monoprints assignment on my OCA Printmaking course, and I've posted them off to my tutor.  Now, I'm on to linoprints!  Yum.  I love relief printing.

For the first assignment, I used a variety of cutting tools to make 24 test squares on an A4 piece of lino.  I'm referring to each square left to right 1 to 4, and top to bottom a to f.  So the top left square is 1a.  I used a variety of v-tools and gouges, and a craft knife as well.

A few of the marks remind me of different things - 1e looks like a school of fish swimming in a circle, and 2f looks like a school of fish darting through water.  The short, vertical strokes of 4a, 3e and 1f look like grasses or crops.  2c reminds me of a choppy pond and 3f of a still pond.  3a could be a flock of birds above a cornfield?  2d looks like hail or snow.  The more delicate qualities of 3c and 4c (made with the craft knife) are a bit like cobwebs.

Overall, it's an ok print?  I like the marks, but the ink isn't as clear and black as I'd like.  I used watercolour ink, and it was my first time using a baren.  I think I need to use more ink and more pressure!

In which I print some self-portraits

Oh, I've been so lax.  Bad me.  I've been working away at my OCA printmaking course, but just haven't been blogging about it.

I'm currently working on the first section, which is on monoprints.  I have to submit four final prints, and one should be a portrait. 

I asked the mirror on the wall who the fairest of them all is, but apparantly Lucy Worsley wasn't available to sit for a portrait.  So I decided to do a self-portrait.

1 - I propped a mirror up and sketched this.  It looks nothing like me.  I think part of the problems is my eyes and mouth are too small here.

2 - I then put that under a sheet of glass, and painted on it using printing inks.  I looked terrifying - the nose areas is all weird and wrong.

3 - This is my final print - I used masks to print the areas of colour, and backdrawing to define the nose, chin, freckles and ears. I kept the whites of the eyes by positioning little masks on the inked surface.  I first printed the green layer, then the pink face, then the hair and eyes, and finally the red lips.

4 - Then, I mucked around a bit.  I rolled out the browny ink and did some backdrawing - this is the original print...

5 - And this is the negative - after I'd taken the first print, I just covered the inked plate and pulled another print.

6 - The one that looks most like me, really, is just this print I did of the 'brown' mask so you can just see my hair, eyes and eybrows.

So - overall, I'm please with my final print, but I wish my nose wasn't wonky - the print on the pink layer got slightly out of alignment. 

In which I share some old prints

As I’m getting ready to start the first part of the OCA’s Printmaking 1 course, I thought I’d look back over some old prints I made.  I took some photos and put them here. 

Some of the prints are ones I made on the York College course – the etchings and the woodcut with chine collé.  Some are ones I just played around with at home – the animals, the portraits, the mermaid.  The fishy ones are monoprints I did on an OCA day course, and later printed over with a linocut goldfish.

The one I’m most proud of is the one pictured here – it’s a two colour reduction linocut of Robin Williams and Mike Heron from the Incredible String Band.  It’s A3 in size, so quite big for me, and I was pleased with the way I captured their portraits and added the vines and text. 

My art supplies from Great Art arrived today so I’m hoping to start printmaking at the weekend!

In which I enrol on a printmaking course

I’ve enrolled on the OCA’s Printmaking 1 course.  Woo hoo!  I’ve got my course materials through the post, and I’m dead excited.  I love the way the OCA mark their course materials as “Urgent Educational Material” – Mr P and I were ill in bed yesterday, and we missed the postman the first time round.  But he came back a second time – because the parcel was for urgent educational purposes? – and Mr P heard him that time.  Heh.  It’s true though, it was urgent.  I was jonesing to get my hands on it.

And I was not disappointed!  The course covers monoprints, relief prints (linocutting mainly) and collatype prints.  And combining all these together.  I may get anarchic and throw some stitches in – who knows!

Anyway, dead excited to get started – the first module is on monoprints.  I’ve just put in a big order at Great Art for some inks, a big roller (my current one is tiny) and some paper.  Inky hands, here we come.