Leaves

Hello,

I wanted to post a bit earlier today but was running low on good images in JPEG format to upload here - and without a picture to get the mind wandering I just wouldn't know where else to begin.

This is a drypoint print. It was taken from a simple study of curling leaves but the technique (in my opinion) has enhanced the delicate line image and turned it into something new.

I love prints, from the humble linocut right through to my favourite - the Mezzotint! Mmmmmm! I love Mezzotint

That said - drypoint is pretty cool too.

A drypoint print is an Intaglio print.

What that means is it is a print that is printed from the groove of a plate as opposed to a Relief print, such as a woodblock print - A woodblock print is printed from the area that is left after cutting out. Do I make sense? Well let me try to simplify it.

An Intaglio print lends itself perfectly to line drawing - and usually very fine line drawing at that, because you are not drawing with a pen, but something much finer, like a knife or a scriber of some description. You need to cut a line into the 'plate' and the print is taken from that line.

When you are doing a woodcut or linocut you print from the area that is left behind after cutting out. So you not only have to think in reverse (that is usually the way with a print - except for silkscreen and digital - but that is another kettle of fish altogether) but you also have to think in reverse black and white - unless you are doing a multi colour linocut/woodblock print and that really is another blog altogether - so I am not going to even go there right now. Think black and white! So with a linocut/woodblock print you have to cut out the areas that you wish to remain white - this form of printing lends itself better to larger areas of black and white, they are usually much bolder. Great for Chiaroscuro (look that up if you don't know)

But really the best way to understand print is to actually do it - it is almost impossible to explain it by mouth. So you need to contact me and start booking in for my print classes next summer! I am not sure what I will be offering right now, but most probably, drypoint, linocut and collograph (I am not even going to go into explanation of that one right now). Those are all simple kitchen table methods of printing, which will be necessary because I will not be set up with a printing press by that time. The results though can be far from the kitchen table, but that, of course, is up to you!