Lino Cut Experiment

For my birthday this year I got a lino print kit and I finally got round to trying it out.

For my first go I decided to do a print of a stag, cos they're pretty in right now, right?

I worked from a photo and it took a while to get used to working in reverse and figure out that the bits I was taking away would stay white.

I cut around lino just so I could use the excess for other prints.

This was my first attempt at printing the lino. I tried to short cut and used an ink pad, which wasn't terrible but the black parts aren't solid black.

Then I tried printing with the printing ink the kit came with. Actually I tried painting gold paint onto the lino and printing that, but that didn't really work, so I printed with the black printing ink over the top.

I got more solid black but not a complete print, but I think that's because I was just pressing down the lino with my hand, not putting it through a printing press. So I think this is the best I'm going to get at home. 

Print Making

This past week at art club I showed the children a couple of different printing techniques.

The first used the foam packaging you get with frozen pizzas. I managed to pick up most of these from the Scrap Store. We haven't had that many pizzas!

To prepare the print block all you need to do is draw your picture, making sure to press the pencil in to the foam. With this technique the design can be quite line-y.

And as with all printing, remember the image with appear reversed once printed. One young girl wanted to draw a bunch of numbers on her print block and she was able to draw them all in reverse.

Using a roller cover the print block with a thin layer of paint, then flip it over and print it onto paper.

The good thing about using the foam packaging is it is quite easy to wash off the paint and make more prints.

The second printing method was simply gluing cardboard cut outs onto a piece of corrugated card. To save time waiting for PVA glue to dry I glued the cardboard using a glue gun. This technique is best used with designs that are made up of bold shapes.

The paint can be applied to the print block with a roller or a paint brush. Using a paint brush is better if you want different elements of the image to be different colours. I also tried gluing tissue paper to the paper and printing on that for a different effect.

Do you have any other kid-friendly printing techniques?

Is everyone still a fan of the potato print? 

Printing with Plasticine

   I've recently been coming up with ideas for the Saturday kids art class I teach occasionally.

   To help me, my Mum gave me some art books she's collected over the years to look at.

   You can tell she's had this one for a long time because she's written her maiden name on it.

   I came across this fun idea for printing and wanted to try it for myself.

Luckily, I already had the two things I needed; plasticine and a cotton reel. I knew I'd been holding on to them for a reason.

I covered the cotton reel in plasticine and found some things to imprint into it. I started with a circle pattern using buttons, beads and the end of a paint brush.

I think the middle strip is the best as there was a bit too much excess paint on the first (bottom) try.

Most of the paint comes off the plasticine as you roll it so there's only a little bit left to wash off. Then you can smoosh (technical term) the plasticine together and start again.

Next I tried imprinting a piece of lace trim on the plasticine.

Again, the second roll looks the best as there was just the right amount of paint on the roller at that point.

I also did a print where I'd imprinted a square wooden bead and a lolly pop stick in the plasticine.

One thing about this technique is that as you roll, you end up squashing the plasticine so the shapes change. This means you can't really use the plasticine to get the same pattern over and over again.

Then I thought about adding to the plasticine base instead of imprinting into it. I used more plasticine to make this flowery pattern.

It turned out really nicely. For this one I applied the paint with a sponge so it would only go on the raised parts, instead of dipping the whole thing in paint.

Then I tried adding circles of plasticine which turned into ovals as I printed.

So that was a fun new technique to try out.

What objects do you think would make a good print?

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Abstract Postcards

I'd had such a good time creating my abstract painting on canvas I decided to create some small pieces. I painted on book pages, coloured paper, and on a couple of 'paint your own postcards', which are postcard sized pieces of watercolour paper with the postcard lines and stamp square printed on the back.

Here's what I came up with. Like the canvas, it was a chance for me to try out different techniques and find out what worked and looked good.

Working on the five pieces at once was a good idea as it meant I wasn't impatiently waiting for something to dry so I could add the next thing, I just worked on a different piece while I waited. 

My favourite of the five is the pink one which was painted on a postcard. Because of this I thought it should have a greeting so I used Letraset to add some letters. 

For this piece I used a colour wash, I sponge printed over sequin waste, doodled with a biro, used a handmade square stamp and a heart stamp and I even did some finger painting.

I've got a few ideas floating around for what the other pieces could be used for. Any suggestions?