#Printmaking Tools

[marywoodartdept]

Star Book

Our Printmaking blogger, Rebecca, shows us a wonderful book that she created. She runs us through the steps that she took to create this book, and all of the different materials that she used to create it. Take a look at this fun, interactive book!

This was one of my favorite books to create. Not only was the process of this book fun, but there were so many steps to release built up creative freedom! I First made two linocuts of two frogs for the insides, and covers of my star book. The front and back cover have a dark sage green fabric binded onto the cover, with a mix of three colored strings twisted for a visual interest, and to tie the…

[tizzymcwizzy]

finally got around to carving some eraser stamps this summer!! ive wanted to try my hand at linocut for the longest time and it was actually a ton of fun :D

[c-kiddo]

my absolute dream house is a little bit midcentury (i saw a beautiful house on instagram) but ultimately minimalist but using warm materials (off white walls in warm grey or blue tones with hardwood floors is my rly rly favourite combination. airy). minimalist and highly practical design. storage and space for the colour in the room to come from things i already use , art stuff, hiking gear, plants, dishes. but space for clear surfaces, space for resting my brain and eyes and everything to be put away. big window that faces trees or a wide open space, not something overstimulating. i would love that

[misspjsuperior]

BERKANA woodcut print rune deck hand made by PJ Superior features each of the 24 Elder Futhark runes (plus a ”Wyrd” card) carved by hand into birch wood and printed in a hand cranked barrel press. (The backs printed with a spoon.) Along with the rune symbols, each associated Norse word along with a simple, deeply meaningful illustrative border is carved into the wood from which these cards are printed. The Norse rune symbols are still the main visual focus.

The woodcut print method used to create this hand crafted set of cards ensures that the wood carving typical of the most ancient sets of casting runes is still present in this contemporary deck.

I call this rune deck BERKANA after the 18th rune in the Elder Futhark alphabet, because it means “birch” which is the same type of wood used for the carving of this deck. In runic divination, Berkana represents growth, renewal, and hope.

A home made guide booklet, sewn by hand, is included to share interpretations for divination. The guidebook includes cultural background and history of the Elder Futhark runes, as well as insights into the inspirations and meanings of the artistic imagery accompanying each symbol.

Limited edition of 50 funded via Kickstarter

A handful of decks now available:

[mildmayfoxe]

ok 👍

[pandakong]

Doggust day 16 - Stabyhoun! Its name means “stand by me.” 🥹

[noodler1]

Cat In the Bun Compartment (Lithograph)

[cypressure]

the block for the raptor linocut is ready to carve! can’t believe i gridded the whole thing but i don’t have access to a big enough printer to make the transfer LOL

[fromthedust]

Jake Muirhead (American, working in Maryland)

Oil Can - etching with aquatint

www.jakemuirhead.com

[cissa-calls]

I frickin love printmaking because it is art MEANT TO BE SHARED

[marywoodartdept]

Lets Try Woodcut!

This week, WhereCreativityWorks is happy to introduce our new Printmaking Blogger, Becca, a graphic design major with a love for all things printmaking. In her first post, she shares about trying woodcut with acrylics. #MarywoodArt #Printmaking #DayOne

For my first blog post I would like to introduce myself as a free spirit when it comes to the processes of creating. I believe in repurposing things of all sorts to create something that speaks to me. I also enjoy printmaking of all types, and something I had never done but always had interest in was creating a woodcut! For my first woodcut piece I found inspiration from my summer trip to Aruba,…

[beakerhoneydew]

Literally earlier I was like wait I’m like fully stocked on art supplies I can make whatever art I want. And then I drew mushrooms for like 45 minutes it ruled.

[tgcg]

ms paint. you know her. u used her age 8 to make loads of rainbow ovals all over the canvas and then scramble it with selection tool. now u will know her true powers with my handyrandy tips under the readmore. some will be pretty basic and others are very special.

this post has 8 cool trix to learn for you. enjoy and i may do another in the future if i remember/learn more stuff

some of it might be common knowledge. but its got some deep cuts. all tips have gifs to show process easily.

🙂 enjoy and i hope this encourages you to fuck around in mspaint more

soundtrack for this post (loop it while you learn for advanced learning experience)

TIP 1) the right click trick

left and right mouse click correspond to col1 and col2 respectively, which u can see in the top bar. this applies to all brushes and the fill tool like above. when using shapes col2 will be the fill colour (if you have solid fill selected). right clicking with shape maker will reverse the colours use on the shape.

TIP 2) right click eraser

this one is extremely helpful for lineart or add shading. the eraser always uses col2. so your eraser can technically be any colour. but here's where you get powers: right clicking with eraser will only erase onto col1, with col2.

TIP 3) transparent selection change a guy destination

the beloved transparent selection tool works based on what is selected as col2. so long as you have the correct colour as col2 you can make any image transparent and put it on top of anything else. and yes this works with photo bg as you can see.

TIP 4) the gradience

this one is a little more complex. you want to start off with any canvas size, and make as many diagonal coloured bands as you want. (protip: holding down shift makes a perfectly diagonal line with line tool)

then you need to resize the canvas to a width of 1px (make sure you resize by pixels, and do not maintain aspect ratio). then resize again back to its original width (or a different width i cant stop you). you will have your lovely gradience.

TIP 5) superimposter

so. you got a cool gradient and wanna put a guy on it. heres what i do:

i open a 2nd mspaint with same canvas size and draw whatever i want on there. i then pick a completely unrelated colour to my entire piece, and set that as the bg. you could use white, pink, geen, whatever you want as long as it doesnt appear somewhere else in ur drawing. copy the guy.

go back to your gradient tab. ensure that col2 is set as that bg colour you picked (lilac for me). have "transparent selection" enabled. paste your guy in. cue fanfare

TIP 6) advanced superimposter

the great thing about this method is u can put multiple gradients in multiple areas of the image. this is where it gets all japanese printmaking type of shit. ukiyo-esque

all you need to do is make another canvas with a new gradient, ensure col2 is set as the colour you want to replace, then paste your original piece onto the new gradient. now my guy has a soft fade. you can do this as much as you want. (you could even make a canvas with a texture or photo and paste your drawing onto there)

TIP 7) "sketch layer"

so as you now know, col2 is what is removed when you click "transparent selection". which means you can also remove any instance of a colour from ur drawing. which means you can have a unique colour for sketch layer and remove it from the drawing later. i admittedly dont do this but it is a great trick to have.

now combine this with lowering your dpi for smoother lines. may seem obvious but it helps. its like a free stabiliser whenever u want.

TIP 8) rainbow art

now this is where you can get dizzee rascal "bonkers". check out my small and shitty rainbow trick. you can select anything and hold down shift, then drag with left mouse, to turn that selection into its own brush. i even did it with a guy. and you can of course do this with a photo as well.

🙂well that it for now. hope you liked it thanks for reading now back to your regularly scheduled tgcg programming

[ghostlysleuth]

update: the closest guesses to it are acetate and transfer paper! though i can't find many people online who do the exact method that we did i class, always half of it in one video and another part in a different one :/

thanks to the folks in replies tho!! i appreciate the help a lot :)

if anyone would wanna help me out finding the exact method, i'll write it in detail under the cut (take it with a grain of salt, i don't remember it with 100% accuracy):

print (b&w) design onto acetate/transfer paper/whatever it is. i think let it dry?

let the paper to be printed on soak in water for a bit then let rest between towels.

gather supplies (ink, roller, ink knife, 2 shallow containers -- one for rinsing ink, one for clean(er) water -- & a sponge for each).

run sponge over surface of work station; place acetate on it and run sponge over that to stick it flat and in place. (?)

use ink knife to place some ink down on (different area of) work station. run roller over the ink to spread evenly.

apply inked up roller to design, rolling over it again and again. use the sponge reserved for ink to gently clean excess ink off the design in broad strokes. ink will adhere to the printed design on acetate, despite sponging over the design.

do this multiple times to ensure there is enough ink. may take a while. (i recall that even doing this 3-4 times wasn't even enough; print came out faint and not nearly bold enough).

with the design all ready and inked, retrieve paper from towels. place design, ink side up, on the bed of a printmaking press. carefully align and place blank paper atop design. cover with padding on the press and wheel it through, twice for assurance.

lay print on a rack to dry!

anyone into printmaking, please help!

i'm looking for the name of a material i had to use in a printmaking class but can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

it's like this plastic sorta paper that you can print a design onto, then apply ink to a roller, sponging the excess off, then transferring onto paper??

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Some European Renaissance Art Vocabulary

for your next poem/story

Acanthus - A prickly plant with large leaves; used as ornament in ancient Greece and the Renaissance.

Altarpiece - A religious painting composed of one or several compartments or panels; intended to stand on or hang above an altar.

Apocrypha - Literally, things that are “hidden.” The Apocrypha are not universally accepted as official scripture and are excluded from the old and new Testaments.

Blue - The color of the sky. In Christian painting, it symbolizes Heaven. Mary, known as the Queen of Heaven, wears a blue mantle. Blue pigment was derived from either the mineral azurite, a copper carbonate mineral, or ultramarine, made from lapis lazuli. The latter was very costly.

Burin - A pointed tool used to engrave lines into a metal plate that is used for printmaking. Ink applied to the plate will sink into the engraved lines and transfer to the paper.

Cartouche - An ornament in the shape of a scroll with ends folded back.

Coffered - “Divided in squares,” usually refers to a popular Renaissance ceiling treatment that used recessed squares.

Coat of Arms - A heraldic device identifying a person, family, or institution of the nobility.

Confraternity - An assembly of lay persons dedicated to strict religious observances.

Cronice - A horizontal band that crowns the top of a building.

Cuirass - A piece of close-fitting armor for protecting the chest and back.

Damascened - Metalwork ornamented with an inlaid design.

Diptych - A painting, usually an altarpiece, made up of two hinged panels. A triptych has three hinged panels.

Doge - The chief justice in the republics of Venice and Genoa.

Embossed - Metal that is hammered, molded, or carved so as to create a bulge or an image in relief.

Engraving - A process used by printmakers who cut grooves or pits into a wood block or metal plate with a sharp tool called a burin. When the plate is inked, the printer’s ink sinks into the grooves; then the plate is wiped, to remove the ink from the smooth areas. The inked plate is pressed against damp paper by running both between two heavy rollers. The pressure forces the softened paper into the grooves to pull out the ink, which we see as lines.

Entablature - The part of the building that is above the columns, encompassing the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice. This element was first found in Greek architecture.

Foreground - The part of the painted image that appears closest to the viewer, usually the lower area of the painting or other composition. The background, usually the upper area of the painting, appears to be farther back. The middle ground is everything in between.

Gold - A symbol of pure light, the heavenly element in which God lives.

Grotesque - A type of decoration found on Roman wall paintings that we reexcavated in the sixteenth century, especially in Nero’s Golden House. The wall paintings were found in underground caves called “grottoes,” thus, the newly discovered ornamentation was called “grotesque.” These wall decorations featured motifs characterized by imaginative, organic connections between disparate elements, including human figures, animals, insects, and birds, mythological and other fantastic beasts, architectural and plant elements.

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists

[sanrielle]

Amazing fanart by Joanacchi! Posted here on tumblr with their blessing. Each one is based on a style that reflects a particular ancient culture's art history. (See below for descriptions provided by the artist!)

Store (buy these prints!) Twitter Instagram

Aang: Tibetan Thangka

"Thangkas are traditional Tibetan tapestries that have been used for religious and educational purposes since ancient times! The techniques applied can vary greatly, but they usually use silk or cotton fabrics to paint or embroider on. What you can depict in a Thangka is really versatile, and I wanted to represent things that make up Aang as a character."

Zuko and Azula: Japanese Ukiyo-e

"Ukiyo-e is a style that has been around Japan between the 17th and 19th century, and focused mainly in representing daily life, theater(kabuki), natural landscapes, and sometimes historical characters or legends!

Ukiyo-e was developed to be more of a fast and commercial type of art, so many drawings we see are actually woodblock prints, so the artist could do many copies of the same art!

I based my Zuko and Azula pieces on the work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) one of the last ukiyo-e masters in Japan! He has a specific piece which featured a fire demon fighting a lord that fought back with lighting, and that really matched Zuko and Azula's main techniques!”

Toph: Chinese Portraiture from Ming and Qing Dynasties

"Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was one of the longest in China! It was also a period where lots of artistic evolutions were happening, especially when it comes to use of colour! There was not a predilection for portraits during this time, but there are a lot of pieces depicting idealized women and goddesses from the standards of the time. For this portrait of Toph, I imagined something that maybe their parents commissioned, depicting a soft and delicate Toph which we know is not what she is about ♥️

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was the last Chinese Dynasty to reign before the Revolution. One of the most famous emperors of this period was Qianlong, and he really liked Western art! He commissioned a lot of portraits of his subordinates, and I chose a portrait of one of his bodyguards as a reference for the second Toph portrait, which I believe is much more like how she would want to be represented! The poem on top talks about the bodyguards' achievements during a specific war. I had no time to come up with a poem for Toph, so I just used the same one for the composition!”

Sokka and Katara: Inuit Lithograph

"For a long time, Inuit art expressed itself in utilitarian ways. The Nomadic lifestyle of early Inuit tribes played a huge part in that: most art pieces are carved in useful tools, clothing, or children's toys, small and easy to be transported, and depicted scenes and patterns representing their daily lives!

That changed a lot during the colonization. Since the settling of the Inuit tribes, many art pieces began to be created in order to be exported to foreigns, so they started to sculpt bigger and more decorative pieces.

Lithography, which is a type of printmaking, was introduced to Inuit people by James Houston, that learned the technique from the japanese. The art form was quickly embraced by the inuit, as part of the process is very similar to carving. Prints that are produced by inuit artists are still being sold today!

As lithography is not an old art style and it's still commercially relevant to the Inuit communities, since creating these in 2021 I have been donating regularly to the Inuit Art Foundation, not only all the money I get from selling some prints of these but a bit more, at least once a year. Hopefully, I can increase donations this year!”