Week 7 - Printing Portraits
/ Context /
The theory behind this 'self portrait' is that I used the list provided to us in class and found my favourite colour, the one phrase that describes me the best, favourite animal, etc. I landed on the quote, "Fitting a square peg into a round hole" and thought that best described me and what I stand for. I know it's cheesey to say you're different to everyone else, but in the most genuine way possible I feel different to most people I meet hence the phrase, "Fitting a square peg into a round hole", as I feel I am the square peg being forced into the round hole of society.
/ Self Portrait Black and White /
/ Medium /
Lino square, carving tools, black water based printing ink, glass table, printing press, ink roller and 110 gsm cartridge paper
/ Process /
I began by conceptualising my ideas on paper then transferring my most promising idea onto the square piece of lino. I attempted lino printing for the first time in class so I had the lecturer show me how to use the water based ink on the glass printing table. The paint was applied using a spatula and spread using a printing roller, once the texture was rolled out of the ink, using the roller I transferred ink from the table to the lino cut.
Once thoroughly applied to the lino cut, I applied the cut to a piece of A4 cartridge paper, placed the paper onto a printing press, and applied pressure. This revealed the final print.
/ Reflection /
I made the mistake of forgetting everything that is carved into the lino, is mirrored when you attempt to print onto a surface. The whole design I worked on for an hour was backwards so I had to either start from scratch...or flip it in post. In future I am surely going to keep in mind not to cut on the lines and remember that its mirrored when you're printing. I believe the print came out very nicely, I did have to use digital software to clean the excess carving marks.
/ Self Portrait One Colour + B&W /
/ Medium /
Lino square, carving tools, black and yellow water based printing ink, glass table, printing press, ink roller and 110 gsm cartridge paper
/ Process /
In essence, the process was exactly the same as before, instead of using a single colour (Black), I rolled on two colours. Black and Yellow were the easiest colours to use at the time.
/ Reflection /
The Black came out really nicely again, however the Yellow ink was not as forgiving. The yellow ink was for screen printing I believe and was extremely sticky making the process of rolling without texture extremely difficult. Juggling two colours actually became quite difficult as the first colour was drying before I could get to the printing press. Next time I would ideally I would be nice to have a printing press and coloured inks to myself but I just wasn't possible at the time of the studio.
/ Self Portrait Two Colour + B&W /
/ Medium /
Lino square, carving tools, black and yellow water based printing ink, glass table, printing press, ink roller and 110 gsm cartridge paper as well as digital colouring.
/ Process /
In essence, the process was exactly the same as before but, I rolled on two colours and had to resort to using digital means to add the cyan as the colours were not coming out well together. I took the black and white original print, scanned the page and imported into photoshop. Using masks and layers, I changed the black square and lettering to the colours cyan and the matching yellow of the last print.
/ Reflection /
This final print was very challenging to get right with the tools I had at my disposal. I would be applying the second colour to the lino block and the first colour would be slowly drying, so by the time the third colour was being applied the first would be completely ruined. In the end I had to use digital colouration to get the desired effect. In future I would try find a smaller roller to apply small coloured details quickly and with more precision. I was unable to do that with the larger rollers provided in the studio. All in all, I believe the final Lino print came out very nicely, with a very crisp finish that didn't need much touching up at all.
