Lino Prints

Purpose:

• To become familiar with basic printmaking history, processes, and artists
• To make connections between the Expressionist Art Movement and artists who worked in that style, including artists from our past and present;
• To respond visually to artists who work(ed) in the style of the Expressionist Art Movement, by creating a work of art in this style.
• To print 2 editions of 2 different drawings/designs, demonstrating understanding of the printmaking process.

I came across quite a few difficulties when I began the actual printing process. I kept on getting the little ink marks showing up in the background where it was supposed to be negative space. Even when I cut those parts shorter, ink spots would show up in other spaces. It was very frustrating and eventually I just cut the whole background down very low. Also, where I had large areas of positive space, the ink did not want to stick, so I had to roll a lot of ink over those spots for anything to even show up. I also had some difficulty coming up with a second design to print. I knew I wanted to make an orchid, but I was not sure how to do this with only positive and negative values, as there was need for a lot of middle values. I accomplished this by changing spacing in lines where the darker middle values would be closer together lines and lighter middle values would be further lines.

I am most proud of the designs that I created, since those are the most creative aspect of printmaking in my opinion. I think my first design is the better looking one, as it is more simple and has a better balance of positive and negative. I also like how it has a definite mood to it, unlike my second print. The color schemes are also more ideal to me, as I used contrast between black and blue and some cooler colors and red, whereas the orchid print is just contrast of black on pastel colors.