This past semester I took an introductory printmaking class. It was not my absolute first introduction to printmaking since I had a printmaking project in a high school art class, however I like it much more now than I did then. I thought I would share a couple of the projects I worked on during the class.

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The first printmaking process that clicked for me was the reduction block linocut. We did two projects with this process, a simple one to get acquainted with the technique, and a more complex one. Up until this point, I couldn’t have achieved a solid, flat color with the techniques we were using, but with linocut, I could. I definitely prefer the flat look in most cases, so maybe that’s why I enjoyed the linocuts so much.

Another process we explored is screen printing. Right off the bat, I bit off more than I could chew with the design, and then again with the color. I really tried to create a limited color palette of only a couple colors, but it was just not satisfying me.

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My professor told me that tears were a part of the printmaking process, and this project made that clear. I will list a few of the roadblocks that had me on the brink of a mental breakdown. I couldn’t use stencils to print my colors for reasons which still elude me (the paper stencils were getting wet and wrinkly, which warped the prints—I don’t know why), so I had to create a second screen just for colors. I made the color screen backwards, so I had to redo it, which wasted a whole class period. For each color I printed, I taped off the screen with masking tape rather than use a paper stencil, which was time consuming. In my original design, the wand was in front of the sword, however when I printed the color, I accidentally reversed them. I had to go back to the line art screen and change it to reflect the colors. I wanted some of the lines to be red instead of black, so I had to print the lines twice, once with each color. I forgot to tape off all the right areas when I printed the red lines, so I had to go back over that with a paint brush to fix it afterwards. I honestly can’t even remember all of the mistakes I made, but suffice it to say it was a struggle.

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Despite all that, screen printing was my favorite project, and I’m happy with the result. I like the qualities of screen prints, and I like that once everything is set up, the actual printing process goes by quickly. I even managed to print my line art on a couple tshirts!