Printmaking - The College Years

I attended a 3-year design program in Alberta. The first year helped develop a strong foundation for colour theory and design fundamentals while also allowing us to experiment with fine arts. The last two years were spent trying to excel at the software, hone our design skills and work with other mediums. One of my favourite classes was printmaking. It allowed me to work with a fantastic professor who inspired us to play with the mediums, tell stories through our art and push our comfort zone a little.

Since graduating over 10 years ago, I haven't done any printmaking. I've started a few things here and there and never really finished them. Now I'm excited to get back into it. I have been playing with inexpensive material for stamps such as cork and erasers for now and plan on progressing to lino and perhaps woodcut.

Thought I'd share a bit of my college work with you starting with Woodcuts:

I remember really enjoying woodcuts. The ideas, drawing and process came to me pretty easily. I know I liked thick lines, rough cuts and some wood grain showing. There was also something satisfying about carving the block and tossing the mess on the floor (to vacuum up later) while watching TV.

Lithography:

This process was harder for me to fine tune. It takes a lot of work to have a level, smooth stone and there's not a lot of room for fixing mistakes. Going through my work I had a few other prints, but they weren't as strong as these two.

Intaglio:

This was also a tricky one for me but perhaps because it came with less physical labour than lithography, I didn't mind taking a while to get used to it and figure it out.

The faces were omitted on purpose on the top print. I remember missing my home town friends desperately at that point and feeling like they were disappearing. Remember, this was before email caught on and WAY before Skype.

I really loved being able to go back into an artist's proof with watercolour, as I did with the last piece.


There are a few other pieces and perhaps I'll post them another day. I've been feeling nostalgic for the time in the printmaking studio and definitely the access to free supplies and large presses. It's sparked a keen interest to work with printmaking again and I'll get there, slowly, but surely.

... J