About the Author - Sketchbook Development

After getting into a creative rutt, sorry - after remaining in my creative rutt i noticed a few of the class were getting to grips with some lino cutting/printing, and achieving some great results. I never really thought of it as alternative way of creating mini 'screen prints' or stamps. Also with the options to get another colour involved. I'd never done it before, but as i wasn't inspiring myself with my sketching work i thought i'd give it a bash- with a fair of guidance/advice from classmates, as they seem to of had a but more experience with it than me. As i didn't really have a lot of suitable material to use as subject matter for a lino cut i knocked up some quick designs of a unicorn skull that pops in the Murakami book I'm reading. I just had to keep in mind,all the time, "keep it simple" and "its not going to be perfect, so don't give up when it doesn't come out at crystal clear,digitally produced quality".

Looking back at my first attempts, they weren't a massive success really. I didn't have the 'proper' ink for it so was experimenting with acrylics, and oil. Acrylics were to slippery, and i couldn't really apply it to my roller very well ,the results were really faint washed out (not pictured) So i though id give the oil a go. Having never used it before i had no idea of how messy it is, how long it takes to dry and how much of a ball ache it is clearing my equipment up afterwards. So much so that its put me off ever wanting to use for anything again. I mean seriously,i left my prints in my drawer to dry - two weeks later its still coming off on my hands.Usless! How is that useful in any way?!

However, i did enjoy the processs of making something from scratch and ending up with something physical in my hands, that i wouldn't  then have to go into Photoshop and touch up until the cows came home. So i set about making a developed version of the previous design. I hadn't really thought the first one through too much as i got carried away with crafting process. This design would have more colour present, as the previous one id ended up cutting most of filled-in area away leaving only thin line work. Also had some printing medium to mix in with the acrylic to make the magic work when applying the paint to the lino, so was keen to make some more (east-to-clean)mess.