The semester is nearing it’s end, which means that it has been pretty busy juggling assignments and preparing for finals. I’m taking Northern Renaissance Art currently, and our final project for that class is to make a type of presentation about 3 pieces of artwork during the era.
Personally, anything would be better than writing several pages of an informative paper, so ultimately I chose to prepare a trifold presentation. My chosen topic for my final project is Albrecht Dürer, focusing on one of his pieces we learned in class, and researching furthermore on two other works that weren’t shown in class. Albrecht Dürer was a talented artist that had a strong medium in painting, however, he was also well known for his prints and engravings. Me and my class had the opportunity to see some of his prints up close and personal at the MET back in October, which left and impression on me to the point of doing my final on him.
My only experience in “printmaking” was back in middle school, where I printed a photograph of Jimin from BTS and transferred it into a linoleum block. From there, I carved away whatever was needed on the block, then covered and spread it evenly with ink and pressed it against paper to get a print. In Dürer’s time, his prints were made from woodcuts, the technique not all too different from the modern linoleum block.
I was inspired to try doing a print myself, the process in itself a bit taxing. Currently, I’m still working on the sketch itself that is gonna transfer onto the linoleum block I purchased the other day. A trick I learned back in high school was covering the back of the sketch or photo with graphite, placing it on the block and tracing the sketch so graphite lines appear on the block. What gives me the most worry is the carving process of the linoleum block, since most of my sketch lines are very thin. As I mentioned, the piece is still a work in progress, but I hope to show it in the near future and explain furthermore on the subject matter and thought process behind the piece.
