Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Introduction to Printmaking short course with Elizabeth Hunter starts this Saturday July 27

Introduction to Printmaking: 6 week course

This course is designed to familiarize artists with a variety of printmaking techniques, in order to create visual diversity, through colour and texture, extending their artwork through the exploration and experimentation of the print medium.

The course will cover three main print techniques over a period of 6 week’s.

Week 1-2: Monoprint; monoprint’s can be classed between painting and printing, many artist’s have used the monoprint as the foundation of other types of work. For example, Degas used monoprints to work out composition and the play of shadow and light, sometimes using them as the base for his pastel drawings and paintings.
The monoprint in itself, is a beautiful and free way of expressing ideas and capturing the essence of a moment in time.
Week 3-4: Collagraph; collagraph’s can be very diverse in the way in which they are created and printed. The matrix can be made from metal, wood, plastic, cardboard, etc, thus making it one of the most economical and experimental process’s as far as materials go. The prints exhibit various depths of inked area and embossing, which gives the work a rich and very textural finish.
Week 5-6: Intaglio/Etching; etching has been in existence since the 1400’s, developed by the need to document and recreate engravings used on steel armour. The process involves the use of a wax/bitumen ground applied to a metal plate, which is inscribed with an etching needle, or other tool, and submerged in bath of acid that etches the image into the plate.

There are as many processes and possibilities in intaglio as there are ideas in the artists imagination. This workshop is devised to give the student a ‘taste’, of the medium, which they can continue to develop.