Relief printing-Lino Cut

Examples of my explorative work on the day. These ones with the white streaks where a happy accident...i dabbed the pallet knife into the white and dripped it accross the stone over the blue and rolled it just once so the streaks would come out on the background print.then when i printed on top this mad thing happened! the black ink is apparently translucent so the white completely repelled it.and some stuck to the actual lino, so i made another print [above] and still got an interesting result

The below is printed using the press.The aboce i did by hand, i deliberately used light pressure on the edges. excellent this can be done at home

Lino cut is an excellent process.im gutted ive waited until now to explore it. the biggest appeal to this is that it can all be done AT HOME!!definately trying this at home. 

PROCESS:

biggest thing i found out is your working from LIGHT to DARK. in other words think of it as if drawing white on black. as if drawing the light. the utter opposite of drawing with a pencil or pen.  so if i wer to do a life drawing using this method, id only draw where the light lands [at first]

also the image you make prints out in reverse

REDUCTION PRINTING-firstly i found the best thing to do before launching into cutting was to print off a stack of backgrounds using the clean flat face of the lino. I got well into this and could of spent weeks just doing that-such an endless amount of possibilities and varieties. i used the straight lines from the roller to create compositions, to leave parts lighter than others, allsorts of things not just flat colour, altho thats still completely viable as it gets worked on top on.

also it veyr important at this stage to work with LIGHT COLOURS, as youll be prininng on top you'll fuck it if you start with darks, but if u really want to, add a medium to make it alot more translucent. i did that with a dark red.nbu mostly stuck with light yellows, blues and greens.

we used japanese vinyl, which is a squidge more expensive ut still relatively cheap. later i got a square about the size of an a4[bit wider] for about £2

-but using the same process you can use any old wood you find [or lino-whack it in th oven for a bit to soften it so its easier to cut] THIS IS BRILLIANT!-proper lo tech easy cheap excellent results AND YOU CAN DO IT AT HOME! and the joy of using wood [which ill experiment with] is THE GRAIN OF THE WOOD COMES THRU IN THE PRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!learning that opened a whole new door into new possibilities

if using wood, cut ALONG THE GRAIN of the wood.smoother cuts and easier

and remember to cut away with you, with your spare hand behind.its not easy as were all used to working with our hand beside holding the piece.but saves getting injured too much

-this is a wonderful excellent process i thoroughly love working with them oil based inks and pretty much all printing processes. i am definately gna invest in a mini kit to play with at home.

heres what you need [thanks to tessa's DIY shopping list:] ......

1. SET OF LINO CUTTERS [JUST ONE WITH RED HANDLE, AND BOX OF DIFFERENT SIZED TIPS BEST N CHEAPES FOR THIS]

2. WOOD/ VINYL / LINO / KITCHEN LINO

3. OIL BASED INK [IF POSSIBLE]

4.ROLLER/S

5. WHITE SPIRIT / OLD CLOTHES FOR CLEANING

6. SLAB OF GLASS [6MM OR THICKER] OR OTHER SMOOTH MATERIAL

7. 'BARREN' OR WOODEN SPOON BACK / BACK OF HAND / ROLLING PIN [TO PUT PRESSURE ON TO PRINT THE FUCKER]

enjoy!!its lots of fun!and messy!

DECODE [digital interactive exhibition]

This was a fascinating little exhibition-and at the V+A too!!? fascinating for all. i just loved the weirdness and how you could be part of it, there wer touch screen music videos and was fun spinning a face or street around in 3d.

i strange wall with moving things that could see your shadow, i think you could paint this wall using just movement, some leaves projected onto the floor that somehow got swept away as you walked. a world of things you wouldnt believe real. check it out!well worth it! [kept getting fucked off with people hogging all the good stuff or getting in the way of me making a shadow, but it was very busy, we just went in at a time with a prat with no consideration, so go in the morning]

-also took friggin loads of double exposures!!mixed up the digital madness with the centuries old sculpture.wil be uploading them next week when developed!

Ross Collins childrens illustrator-found inspiration

Happened accross this illustrator yesterday. i was looking at childrens books, researching for the OKIDO project

i really like his drawing style, the way he does his curves, the shape of the body and legs, and how the face sits in the frame of hair.just a really good draughtsman, i find some of the colours a bit sickly, but aside from that i really like this drawing style, and its good to see top notch stuff can be achieved not using illustrator. still want to use it tho!

ETCHING-part 1; plate preperation+creation

I used steel to Etch onto. I deliberately chose it as its a metal ive never tried before, also because this steel had rusted slightly and i hope to get an interesting effect off it come printing.

-Normally were taught using zinc plate-but its bloody expensive; my steel is about 15" by 40"= £2.80. Zinc is about £15 odd quid for a size smaller than that. but apprently you get much finer lines, and the different metals have a different quality. Id prefer a harsher stronger more graphic quality of line, and to my delight i achieved this and more.

PROCESS:

Firstly i cut the steel to size. Polished it with metal polish and scrubbed it with chalk+water in order to get any grease off, and to give purchase to the hot wax ill put on it.

-Next i heat up and melt some wax on a hot plate. 

-there are two types of this tacky brown wax; 'softbound' and 'hardbound'

hard bound is perfect for transporting your plates about the place, and best for drawing with a sharp point. i used a compass

-softbound, as the name suggests, is a lot softer and softer tools can be used to streak accross the place and get different effects, such as a cloth or wood. i havent used it much so i cant say much about it, but check out an artist 'Jason Hicklin' excellent etching plates. I was lucky enough to be taught etching by him before LCC,and saw later in galleries of his work. Im keeping my eye out for mikes etchings, i bet hes got alot hidden away.

Once ive applied the wax, i use a handful of lit candles to smoke up the plate. this makes it easier to see the line you make when drawing and also hardens the wax a bit [i think] n makes it best for handling as i intended to prepare these and take them outside the studio into a life drawing session.

Now that ive done my thing with the plates im ready to prepare them in order to make some wicked prints. As you see theres to odd knock and scratch so using this 'stop out' varnish, i paint in the scratches. this is so that when i dip it in acid for it to 'bite' into the exposed areas ive carved away from drawing, ill only have the marks i intended, and a cleaner drawing.

-I also take a few more minuites to define my drawings, drawing over the odd line and generally making it stronger

-The next important step is to just cover the back of the plate with plastic brown tape.[so the acid doesnt melt into the back n arse up my plate.

I dipped the plates into the acid bath. As I wasnt sure how strong or weak the solution was, i first went for 15 minuites submerged in the acid , clean it, see how it looks and pop it back in if necessary.

and in this case it certainly was.

in the end i had it submerged nearly an hour, even after lloyd juiced up the solution a bit more

the above photo is the final. I am friggin delighted with the quality of line its just brilliant. i cant wait to see this printed, but time-my worst enemy-was running out ill have to leave this stage for another day.

you can tell when its done by running your fingernail accross the surface and you can feel the groove where the acid has bitten into the metal. the groove should have a solid sharp edge. then its done, if its becoming rounded it wont bite any more n thats your lot!

final stage just bung on some white spirit n wash off the wax. n use a bit metal polish to finish it up

I AM SO DELIGHTED WITH THE RESULTS, i can see already ive got a really good quality of line, quite harsh n edgy n damn graphic n right up my street. i cant wait to get my hands dirty with a bunch of prints. im going to try 2 or three colours, but im also going to monoprint the clean back of the print and with those print the image onto it. i cant wait!!

STOLEN SPACE gallery/Brick Lane street art

Only the top four images are stuff i found outside the gallery. I really liked the top image and the other in a similar style. i just loved the image, really well dran and that day i have learnt about lino cut/wood cut prints so that really appealed to see what else could be done with it

and is about as far away from 'graffiti' as it gets.LOVE IT.

there wer stacks of cool stickers n other bits n pieces but it was so cold outside and was with other people so didnt want to kick my heels too much arsing about with pictures of stickers.

the gallery itself is quite small, but has a decent amount in it n forces you to look more into the images themselves.and their print collection

shame we went so late theres a couple other galleries i really like round there but an otherwise excellent and creative trip.love graphics n graphics people