Printmaking

This project requires you to produce a "Reduction Print" which is a multi coloured Lino Print on the theme "Small Creatures". Lino printing requires direct carving with lino carving tools onto the rubber printing blocks. The tools must be sharp so they will carve properly. This means that there are safety concerns. You must always carve away from yourself, turning the lino if necessary.

· Hold the lino behind where you are carving to avoid injury.

· Follow these steps to complete your lino print project:

1. Using your visual diaries, produce 6 small drawings on the theme "Tribal Creatures " (11cm x 11cm). If you search "Tribal Creature Designs" or" Tribal Insect designs" in Google Images you will find some inspiration.

These searches showed some great images:

• Celtic Creature Designs
• Maori Creature Designs
• Australian Aboriginal Creature Designs
• Viking Creature Designs
• Inuit Creature Designs
• Indian Creature Designs
• Chinese Creature Designs

The drawings are to be coloured in at least 3 colours and are to be 11cm by 11cm as this is the size of the printing block. Your drawings are to be blocks of colour (like a cartoon) rather than carefully shaded because lino printing is not suited to shading.

2. Choose your favorite drawing to transfer to lino. To do this you need to rub 6B pencil on the back of your drawing so that you can trace the picture onto the lino (like carbon paper). You are welcome to draw straight onto the lino.

3. Carve the lines of your drawing using the small V shaped carving tool. You can also carve away any areas of your print which are to remain white. Remember the safety rule “Always Carve away from yourself”.

4. Print 4 copies of your print using the lightest colour of your design. Leave them to dry. Wash your printing block and carve away the areas which are to remain that lightest colour. We will use a clean dry roller to print with.

5. Print the second lightest colour over your first colour. Make sure you line them up properly.

6. Repeat the process for all remaining colours.

7. One copy is to be mounted on black paper and another is to be pasted into your visual diary and with a well designed heading and a written explanation of the process (about 100 words).