Printmaking Skills Lab

Printmaking Skills Lab — page 3
GET INTO PRINTMAKING Read this book with a sense of adventure It is designed to unleash the creativity that exists within you The projects in this book will help you express your feelings your thoughts and your ideas through your art When learning to make prints enjoy the process and don’t worry too much about the finished product To make it easier all the projects in this book can be done by hand-pressing Find your own individual style and run with it MINI-BIOGRAPHIES Throughout the book you will find mini-biographies highlighting the work of well-known artists You can learn a lot about printing techniques by looking at great works of art Experiment with the techniques the artists used Examine each artwork to see how its parts were put together and how symmetry types of lines and color were used 4 WHAT IS PRINTMAKING Printmaking is the art of creating an image on one material and transferring it to another The artist carves the image into the first material which is called the printing plate A plate can be made from wood linoleum cardboard foam or many other materials including vegetables Next the artist applies paint or ink to the plate Paper or fabric is pressed against the plate so that the image is reproduced Prints can be made by hand pressing as you will be doing or by using a hand-powered printing press Finally the plate and the paper or fabric are separated Printing plates can be used over and over again When professional artists make a batch or series of prints from one plate they write the number of each one in pencil at the bottom of the print on the left For example print 2 15 means it is the second in a batch of 15 prints The artist’s name goes at the bottom on the right The print title and date may be added as well