Printmaking Elective Evaluation

The most interesting research I came across was work by Mark Andrew Webber who designed Lino Prints. He designed typographic maps that were about A1 in size and each took upto 50 hours just to carve out the lino.

Amsterdam:







































London:



























New York:



















Guardian newspaper type design:



















A finished print:















My Evaluation

Overall, throughout this elective module I have learned a lot about basic printmaking and the skills needed to go into it, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Some processes were more difficult or more enjoyable than others (as I have mentioned in more detail in my ongoing report) but I think I progressed well each week.
Drypoint in the first week was the least interesting of the techniques, but after re-visiting it at the end of the course, I feel I got a bit more out of it and saw how useful the simple process could be.
The Monoprint process is one that I think I got the most out of in terms of achievement. I have used this technique before and it is a quick and easy way to test and experiment with designs and I think it will be the most useful and relate the closest to the work that I do in my main course of study. I could do endless prints in this way, I enjoy it so much, and think I improved the more I experimented and learned from my mistakes as I went along. I wish I had I chosen a more typography based theme at the beginning of this elective, however, as I would have liked to have pushed myself further, certainly with monoprint, and worked with lettering and designing them in reverse.
The Lino print was something I had never done before and even though I followed the process well, carving into the lino and preparing it for print, I found it difficult to then line it up when re-printing onto the same print. I think I could probably achieve better results in this if I carved out a neater and simpler design.
I feel I did not achieve as much as I had hoped out of the Aquatint process, due to my first session not being a great success when it came to the actual printing, as the original plate had not been fixed enough for the ink to hold onto the areas that had been exposed. This meant the ink just filled in the outlines, not the rest of the image. The second attempt I spent too much time focusing on being accurate and careful with each stage the copper plate goes through in preparation, that I only had time at the end for a few prints. I thought beforehand this would have been my favourite technique, but actually I really enjoyed the simplicity and 'craftyness' of Collograph. I had never done this before and even though I had to wait a bit for the varnish to set on my board at the beginning, I had plenty of time to experiment and found I had more freedom with colours and textures and more time to use different materials and see how effectively they turned out when printed.
As well as the actual printmaking side, I also achieved more for myself in terms of time management - keeping up-to-date with sketchbooks, research and the report, attending all the sessions I could and generally being organised over the ten week course.

Here are some of my boards from collograph, drypoint, aquatint and lino that I actually liked just as much as the prints themselves!