Mono & Lino Print session

M O N O   P R I N T

I'll not write up much about this really. Having taken part in the mono printing sessions at Vernon street last year my feelings haven't changed much towards it after today. It's still too messy and its still too random! Some people are messy crafters, others (like myself) lets just say, like it bit cleaner with less smudges and fingerprints. Having a bunch of 15 students huddled around a small table rolling ink into each others work & elbows probably didn't help my production process neither. I will say it's good at making interesting textures and patterns, but my results were mostly accidental and i found impossible to replicate. But that might just have be down to my lack of mono print experience. I didn't experiment very much with the whole process - i was happy enough with the jazzy 80's style patterns i had managed to create, although when i went to pick up the dried prints a couple of days later  i guess someone liked them a bit more than me, as they'd disappeared? So sadly, no evidence that i ever made anything! 

In summary, i know you should be open to all production methods and techniques if it aids your practice, but i can honestly say mono-printing never will, and unless its part of a mandatory lesson i'll never devote another minute of my life trying it  or cleaning up after it.You can't do everything right!? I like being able to somewhat control whats coming out of the other end (so to speak) and with this process i never did. True, i've only ever done it twice, but i really can't see how this will ever fit into the way i produce work. Except for textures!! Great for textures, but nothing i couldnt just as easily reproduce in Photoshop,in half the time without being up to my balls in oil & warm soapy water.

L I N O   P R I N T S

Was looking forward to the afternoon session and finally getting some good lino printing results using the proper inks rather than half-arsing it with acrylics! i had my pre-prepared design ready to use just in case, but made a new design up and cut it out during the lesson aswell.

After the cutting out the new design and giving a test print, it printed 'ok'. There was a lot of finer details on there, like blades of grass, which id had been too delicate with, hadn't cut deep enough into the lino and so had dent really shown up to well on the print. I could've gone back to the lino, found which bits hadn't shown up and cut them out deeper, but again the crowdedness and messiness was a factor. Everyone was busy doing trying to get here own thing done, so cleaning my plate off, finding a seat and digging out the fine details wasn't going to happen - so i switched to my back up lino cut, which having spent a bit more time on it, i kinda knew that it would more or less print out how intended.

Here are some of the results. Not massively innovative sure, but simple bold shape work which i'd set out to achieve & also fun to see the final result on paper after the looong process of actually getting it to simple & fast printing stage. There a few bits that i could've done with digging out a bit more, as i was getting some unwanted textural lines.This was due using actual 'medieval ink squishers' (or Hawthorns as i heard them being referred to as) as opposed to just using my puny body weight behind a book, which meant that the ink coverage onto the paper was hugely improved!

Last print of the day, done with the last smears of various different colours. I just went around a did a single roll of orange/purple etc. I got some pleasing gradients going on, which, when i come to experiment with lino cutting/printing in the future, (which i'd like to, albeit in less crowded and messy surroundings) is something i'll try out more. Although my one-colour versions came out ok, i just felt they were a bit 'meh'. A bit plain. This could possibly be down to the actually design in the lino i realise. Making the horn, sound waves and cracked rock different colours to the skull was something i would've considered more seriously, not given the time and space restrictions we had, but i'd be keen to go back up there in my own time and try out some more,as when its not ram me dull of messy sods, i enjoy working in the print studio. Any unlike so many, i love the warmth up there! 

Two colour and 'reduction' lino cut designs would also be something that i'd like to get  my head around at some point. It'd be a simpler,stripped down alternative to screen printing - but i don't know if i'd be satisfied with having to compromise on the fine details?! As far as using this process for my final print pieces, i'm not too sure about. The cutting phase is too prone to mistakes and would have to seriously reign in the amount of detail id be putting into the final piece.