Category Archives: Printmaking

Cornflour And Vinyl

I carved a few small vinyl blocks today, based on my field drawings a few years back when I travelled around South Wales with pre-historian Dewi Bowen and film-maker Melvyn Williams. Dewi was researching his book, “Hunting the Wild Megalith“. I used cornflour sprinkled onto the blocks today, to get an idea of the carvingContinue reading “Cornflour And Vinyl”

The Process Of The Portrait: 3

I did a first proof of my new linocut portrait this week. I did as much carving as I thought necessary, following my decision to almost treat the flesh like a geographical feature (see here), and decided to print one to see what I had. I’m not 100% happy with it but I think I’mContinue reading “The Process Of The Portrait: 3”

The Process Of The Portrait: 2

I had to make some decisions today on how I would represent the skin in my portrait. I had cut around the main line drawing, I’ll refine it later, but the question then is do I carve out the main area of skin or not? The model has darker skin so I didn’t want toContinue reading “The Process Of The Portrait: 2”

The Process Of The Portrait:1

I carried on carving my little lino block portrait of one of the life models I work with at Swansea Print Workshop. I’ve done her hair and the outline of the main lines of her face, now I have to decide how I’m going to cut the rest. Lots of things I could do. Decisions…

For The Hour

This was the final pose for the final hour at the recent life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I’d familiarised myself with the model’s face with a series of quick sketches ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. Then I had an hour to play with this pose. I did a 20 minute sketch (topContinue reading “For The Hour”

Trying Out Textures

Here’s the middle poses at my last life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop , two 15 minute poses using graphite onto a good quality but reasonably cheap cartridge paper. I started to play with the texture in the model’s hair, she has a short yet fairly elaborate hair style.

The Corn Flour Hack

I’ve seen a few printmakers using this hack on social media to see if their lino block is ready to print. It saves doing a proof print and getting the block inky. I sprinkled cornflour onto the block and scraped it across the lino with a business card (see below) to get the cornflour intoContinue reading “The Corn Flour Hack”

Which Should I Choose?

These are the final three portrait drawings I did recently at Swansea Print Workshop‘s weekly life drawing group. I did these in the final hour of the session, she maintained the same pose so I was able to really look and analyse what I was seeing and try and be accurate. I’ll be choosing one ofContinue reading “Which Should I Choose?”

Which Should I Choose?

This is the third and final page of portrait drawings I did recently with a new model at Swansea Print Workshop‘s weekly life drawing group. I did these in the final hour of the session, she kept to one pose so I was able to really look and analyse what I was seeing and tryContinue reading “Which Should I Choose?”