Getting started (at last!)

A slipped disc has stopped me from focusing on anything but the basics of life for the last month so it was great to be able to make a start on some mono printing last Saturday. I had previously set up my print studio in our summer hpuse down the garden which will be great when there's some daylight but in the middle of November I can only work at weekends.

I started by spooning out some red, yellow and purple and acrylic printing medium and mixing the paint with the medium then rollering them onto the glass printing plate pretty randomly. It was quite difficult to get an even coating on the roller and I wondered if mixing water rather than medium would give a better result. Maybe the consistency with the medium is something I need to experiment with.

I did three different plates cleaning them meticulously after each print. Cleanliness in printing seems to be an issue and I will need an endless supply of paper kitchen towels and black bin liners. I preferred applying the paint with a brush and then drawing into it with the handle end of a paint brush. I used various brushes and sponges to apply paint including a tooth brush.

Drawing can either be direct onto the paint, by finely dripping paint or with a fine paint brush or it can be acheived by removing paint and leaving a hard edge to a clear space then painting into the clear space.

I got some particularly interesting drawing effects by scraping paint off the glass plate using a credit card. I applied too much paint at one point and when I pulled the paper off the ink was not smooth but had little ripples which were not satisfactory.

I found taking a second 'ghost' print an interesting and useful prosess and will try doing one monoprint over a previously taken 'ghost print.

My learnings from this session were to mix only very small amounts of paint and medium and then only one colour at a time. I also need to try more paint effects and make a library of them for when a specific effect is needed to portray an image.

I want to try painting onto a glass plate that has been been wetted beforehand and to try mixing water based acrylic ink with some kind of oil based medium such as turps. They don't mix so it could be interesting.

New Course Expectations

I chose this course as the second level 1 course towards an OCA Creative Arts Degree because the creative process involved in printing is different to that with painting. With my paintings I have an initial idea from sketches and preparatory work of what I want to do but there is always a further dimension to the creative process which is the spontaneous and instant evaluation and adjustment one makes as one paints.

With printing I sense there is more scope for graphic design because there isn't as much that can be changed once print is put to paper.
So I want to find out if this is the case and to see how far I can take printing in creating expressive images. Can I print as well as I can paint?

I also want my printing to compliment my watercolours so that both strands of my work exist as part of the same thing. As I progress through the degree I want to do so as a painter/printmaker.