Lino Cuts- Illustration - Level 5

Here are a handful of linocuts that have been printed over the past couple of weeks by our  illustrators.

Alex Firmin Brooks

Joe Parker

 Jordan Baines

 Livy Nelson

Rachael Brain

If you would like to try your hand at lino talk to one of our technicians.

What artists do all day- Norman Ackroyd

For any of you interested in etching this half hour documentary is well worth a watch. The documentary is filmed in the London warehouse studio of Norman Ackroyd, one of the countries most celebrated landscape artists, as he creates his latest work. It is a lovely insight into some of the processes used to make his stunning prints.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rd35q/what-do-artists-do-all-day-1-norman-ackroyd

Printroom late-opening times.

*phew*, said he, wiping the sweat from his brow, heck its been busy down here lately. So busy in fact that we haven't had time to bring you much bloggy updates lately - no worries, one of us will get on that just as soon as a spare five minutes presents itself. For now, though, we'd just like to inform you that we, being agreeable folks, have decided to keep the print rooms open slightly longer over the next few days, as we know there are plenty of people wanting to come down here and do work.

Thursday 23rd Oct, we shall be open until 6-ish pm in the evening, Friday 24th Oct., we shall stay open til 5.00pm, and on Monday 27th we'll again be open until 6.00pm.

Photo Etching - Jordan Baines

Last week Jordan Baines (Illustration Level 6) experimented with the photo etching process, A process fairly untested in our print room.  Photo etching involves exposing a positive on to an etching plate. It is a great way to create an etching from a digitally created image.

Here are a few photographs from the process.

Jordan degreased his plate and rolled on a photo sensitive emulsion and left it to harden in a dry dark place.

Jordan had printed his image on acetate in preparation for making up the plate. Once the plate was dry he placed it over his positive and exposed it on the light box; much like you would when screen printing. The image has now been transferred on to the plate and the soft emulsion can be wiped away with methylated spirits. Jordan added some additional marks by hand before covering the reverse with sticky back plastic and placing it in the acid.

The plate was removed from the acid and inked in the same way as a regular etching plate.The results were accurate and Jordan is looking forward to exploring the possibilities of this process further through out his final major project.

If you would like to know more about the process and how it could work with your design contact Christian in the print room.

Inspiration - Dan Speight and The Soft City

How on earth we could think of having a blog, where we like bring you inspirational work that we want to share, without introducing this man, I don't know. Dan Speight used to occupy the hallowed position of Printmaking Technician down in these parts, and we are really chuffed to be able to show you what he has gone on to achieve - proving that really top-quality silkscreen printing doesn't necessarily have to be on a flat sheet of paper! 

Find him here...http://thesoftcity.co.uk

Etching

The Etching studio has been packed to the rafters this week!

Last Thursday and Friday we had inductions for Level Four Illustration students. Here are a few examples from the induction. The students got a real feel for the process and we hope to see them back down very soon.

We have seen a wave of Level 5 Illustration students experimenting with etching this week for their project on sequential illustration.

Work by: Alex Firmin-Brooks

Work by: Livy Nelson

Work by: Aggie Davies

Work by: Joe Parker

Even Illustration lecturer Louis Netter was down printing a plate of his.

If you want to try your hand at Etching but haven't had an induction or can't remember the process pop down the print room and see one of our technicians. Don't be shy!

Linocut printmaking - the Reduction process

As the title suggests, this post concerns the reduction process used in relief printmaking, be it Linocut or Woodcut. We hope this simple tutorial will be helpful in understanding the process, and will inspire you to come down, raid our stock of lino, and get cutting!

http://nataliamoroz.com/reductionmethod.html

Reduction method is a printmaking technique when a multicolored print is made with the use of a single block. Through a series of progressive cuttings, inkings, and printings, the image slowly emerges while the actual block is destroyed. A reduction print can therefore never be reprinted. The main advantage of reduction method is perfect registration.

Reduction method can be tricky, but planning ahead makes it much easier. I always start with a detailed tonal value drawing (preferably in color). Usually, reductions are printed from light to dark. 

Here are step by step images of my recent 5-colors linocut "Breaking Waves". Carved from unmounted Golden-Cut linoleum. The image size 8"x12". Printed on Rising Stonehenge paper with Daniel Smith oil based printing ink. 

The drawing was transfered to the linoleum block. I started with carving away all areas that shall remain white in the final print (white clouds and foam). The plate was printed in pale yellowish green ink. 

Tip: When printing a linocut with more than one layer of inks, I remove extra ink from paper by pressing a clean sheet of plain paper against a freshly printed image. It illuminates unwanted shine and improves the coverage of subsequent layers. 

After the first layer of ink dried, I carved the plate some more and removed the areas that had to be left in the pale yellowish green (parts of the sky and waves). At this state, the plate was printed in teal colour.

Then the plate was carved some more. Everything that need to be left in teal color (dark clouds and most of the ocean surface) is cut away. Then the plate was printed in light blue.

Everything that had to be left light blue is cut away (rocks on the foreground and background). Then the plate was printed in muted violet ink.

Finally, I carved away everything that had to be left dull violet. The plate was printed in dark blue. The print is completed. Since the paper has already accepted five layers of inks, it usually takes the last layer much longer to dry. Breaking Waves linocut is a part of Earth and Sea series.

Petting Zoo - silkscreen prints from a master of the art...

Down here at Printmaking HQ, we like to give you the nod towards stuff that we find, that we love, and that we hope will provide you good folks with a healthy dose of inspiration, and nothing is more pleasing then than to be able to introduce you to work done by people we know. In this instance, the man Spence, AKA Petting Zoo, is an old and valued chum of ours, as well as being an alumni of this place from some time too long ago now...

 

Petting Zoo is someone we regard as a master when it comes to using 'textural mapping'; importing textural layers often created just using old prints or random artefacts found laying around and a scanner, which he uses to great effect by overlaying, thus allowing other colours to come through.

If you want to follow Petting Zoo - a recommended past-time -  you can find him here… www.easypz.co.uk. 

Take a look and give your eyeballs a treat...