DECEMBER 7, 2016

In this project, the objective was to take a cause that we were passionate about and turn it into a linoleum stamp. We then had to create 3 prints that we would be turning in.

To start off with, we had the idea-gathering and the preliminary sketches. I knew that I wanted to do something centered around the idea that, when someone says "no", that's what it means—no. I figured that I would be able to create a graphic that was simple and that still got the point across. The sketch that I decided to go with was that of a woman's silhouette with a speech bubble saying "NO MEANS NO," and that was the sketch that I then transferred onto a larger piece of paper. Once that was done, I redrew my lines with a softer, darker pencil, and then I pressed the paper (with the side with the drawing face-down) against the linoleum block, and scribbled on the back of the paper to transfer the image. Then, it was time to carve. I carved out the areas that I would want to stay white on the paper, leaving only what I wanted to be covered in ink. Finally, it was time to print. I did several prints, some of which came out better than others, and I hand-manipulated them to add some extra details. In the end I chose my best three, and those were the ones that I turned in.

I liked the idea behind this project, but not to much the process. While it was fun carving out the linoleum block, it was less fun and kind of stressful to print, especially since the prints were so big and there wasn't a lot of room to work. However, I am relatively pleased with the outcome of my pieces. I spent quite a bit of time on the triangles in the speech bubble of the first print, and I hope that my effort shows in that. I also like how my third print came out—originally, the printing didn't go as planned and so I was kind of just viewing it as a mess up. However, the lines looked kind of blurry and glitchy, so I just went with it and used red and blue in the background. I was aiming for a sort of 3D-glasses look, what with the red and the blue and the blurriness, but I'm not sure if it turned out quite like that. Other than that, I can say that I wished I had carved out my linoleum better, since there were a few places where it left lines that I wasn't expecting to be there. Overall, I am relatively proud of my outcome, even if the process wasn't exactly fun.