From the feedback of my crit, it was suggested that I do some printing, specifically lino printing. I decided that this would be a good idea to allow me to generate a lot of works in a small amount of time, and I have a lot of experience with lino printing from college and my first year of university, as it was a process I enjoyed I figured I would have nothing to lose by doing it.
My Lino Cuts:
The lino I bought was extra soft grey, double sided and 3mm in thickness. It has a size of 10cm x 15cm which I felt was a good size for my project.
This linocut had a lot of fine lines and I decided to completely cut out the background so that the cow stood out. I may work onto this more in the future to add more details but I think the use of lines and pattern will work nicely.
This is another Linocut I did of a sheep which has a lot of interesting mark making which I think will make it a successful lino print. I made the darker areas more blocky with only a few lines cut out whilst the lighter areas had more cut out to create an illusion of lots of hairs.
My Lino Prints so far:
These are some of my black and white cow lino prints in which I was getting used to how much ink to apply, which is why some of them look quite faded and others (in particular the one in the middle top row is too dark as I applied too much ink). Some of these prints were from before I added the intricate lines and I forgot to take a photo of the lino cut itself at that time which I now regret. I feel that I was starting to get used to printing the image but would like to incorporate more colour to make them fit in with my project more. I also didn’t include the enclosure in this lino cut so will have to add that down the line.
These are some more lino prints onto better quality paper than my first prints which allowed the ink to sit much more nicely on the surface and I seem to have got used to how much ink to apply. However, in some areas, I didn’t apply enough or too much due to not being able to see very well whilst rolling the ink on but I feel that washing the lino after every print would be too much hassle so I will deal with this for now. I like that the background is cut out yet not perfectly as I feel this adds to the prints overall.
Working onto Lino Prints:
Lino Prints which I started to work onto
These are some of the first lino prints I did in which I decided to paint over the top to incorporate more colour. However, as the printing ink I used prior to this was water based, the paints that I applied on top got quite dark unless I applied several layers of paint which on silks, particularly the one that includes yellow, has a lot of texture. I am going to continue working on these to see what effects I can achieve but I feel it would be better to work onto another colour of prints that is lighter so the colour blending isn’t as noticeable.
Sheep Lino Prints:
These are the sheep lino prints that I have done so far, starting to experiment with different colours being used to print with and to print onto different backgrounds. I feel that these prints are a lot stronger than the cow prints, most likely due to the fact that I was familiar with the printing techniques when I did these prints. I feel that the print onto the red and yellow background works really well and could be just as effective if it was red and yellow ink printed onto a black background which I am hoping to try in my next prints.