Printmaking

Portrait of a Pig, a single colour dark brown etching using needles and soft ground crayons

Lithography, woodcut and etching techniques each have their own technical challenges, and the images can take many weeks to prepare. From choosing the paper, creating the image and printing the result, you have to accept there will be multiple technical problems. It’s a long way from the relatively simple option of paint on canvas or paper.


So why choose to make an original artist print?

Portrait of a cow, a single colour line etching in black using roulette wheels and needles

Printmaking offers so many varied and exciting possibilities that are simply not available in any other ‘single-handed’ mediums such as oil or watercolour. The gentle line of drypoint, the textural layering of Lithography, the ultra sharp line of an etching needle, the powerful contrast of woodcut, and today, the myrad of photographic and computer processes that can be combined to make entirely new effects - all are characteristics of the printmaking medium.

The pleasure and delights of achieving satisfying creative results, often unexpected or unusual brings me back to the print over and over again.

 

The process

A short film showing my working process for woodcut to produce a 2-colour print. This process can change, depending on the nature of the idea.