Details on short course Introduction to printmaking with Elizabeth Hunter starting on Saturday 12th October

Please find notes from Elizabeth Hunter below regarding the printmaking short course which starts on Saturday October 12 at 10am.

Students to bring, Sketch book,
Images to work with
Cereal or cardboard biscuit box
Scraps of lace, feathers, dried leaves
Closed in shoes
Apron or old shirt
Rubber gloves



Introduction to Printmaking: 6 week course. The 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 weeks.

Week 1-2: Monoprint;

Monoprints can be classed between painting and printing; many artists 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 its self is a beautiful and free way of expressing ideas and capturing the essence of a moment in time.

Week 3-4: Collagraph;

Collagraphs 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 vey 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 artist’s imagination. This workshop is devised to give the student a ‘taste’, of the medium, which they can continue to develop.