r/printmaking

I printed these 16 dragon bookmarks with Cranfield gold on smooth black mount board

I've done little stuff on erasers using an xacto knife before, but this is my first planned block print with real lino and tools. I have lots to learn still but I'm pretty happy with how it went.

No accidental gouges, on me or the lino. Lots of chatter but I don't hate it.

I do, however, dislike Speedball tools already and it's all I've ever used. Might look into something better. I need a finer tip for sure.

I am an art teacher, and in my last private lesson, my student and I experimented with linocut printing using black ink, various types of paper, and suminagashi; these are the results of the prints made from my block.

I'm really inspired by the incidental wear patterns on everyday items. I take a lot of cues from worn building facades with many layers of paint, and old signage with ghosts of past advertisements. What do you think of the composition?

Hope you like it :) Pretty proud of how far I've come with my work. Any input is always welcome.

My latest wood engraving and a shot of the block in-progress with bonus cat. Block is end-grain maple, 5 in. x 6 in. Paper is Kitakata and ink is Cranfield Carbon Black letterpress ink.

Anyone here have strong opinions about the difference between these two presses? I've used the one on the left before, but considering purchasing one and wondering if there's much of a difference between them. Thanks in advance for your input! :)

So there's a little bit of a story to this print! I thought the fellow printmakers here might enjoy it.

Back in 2019 I got into etching, and was really enjoying it, attending open access sessions at a local print studio and learning tonnes of new things. I was working on this print in early 2020. I actually posted the in-progress line etching here before I added the aquatint tones. So in mid-march, I was at the studio and painstakingly did a few layers of aquatint - carefully painting on the resist and dipping the zinc plate in acid for carefully timed stints. If you've ever worked with aquatint you'll know it's a heck of a process (and really fun!). I was finally ready to print it and see how all my hard work had turned out. But the studio was about to close for the day, so I thought 'OK, I'll come back next week and print it'. But of course this was 2020... a few days later, I got a message saying the studio was closed for an unknown amount of time while we wait for this covid thing to blow over. Of course then the UK was in lockdown, and everything was put on hold.

In the meantime, my situation changed. I was still making art but had adjusted to the lack of studio facilities and focused on drawing and linocuts that I could make at home without a printing press. I got much more busy with my job, went through a couple of massive crunch deadline pushes and subsequent burnout, I moved house... basically life happened, as it tends to. It was harder for me to make the time and to travel to studio facilities, and I hadn't really thought about etching in years.

Then one day I came across a new place locally with an open access print studio. It was walking distance rather than a difficult bus or train journey. I did an induction/taster session, and suddenly was all hyped about etching again. So I remembered this old plate, sitting unprinted in a drawer, still a total mystery how the hours of aquatint work had turned out, if it worked at all! For all I knew I could print it and it would be a huge mess.

So a few months ago I FINALLY got to print this etching. The moment of peeling back the first print of a new piece is always super exciting, but this was on a whole extra level. And I was really happy with the outcome! I made a few minor fixes and now have printed a finished edition, and it's felt like a really important moment for me and my art. And of course I'm now addicted to etching again!

Thanks for the advice given on my last post. Invested in some oil based ink and was much more careful with the amount ink used. Still not perfect but much happier with the result here.

Zinc plate. Aquatint. Watercolor on the last one.
I think I’m going to soft ground a pattern into the background for my editions, but I’m pleased with how it came out!!