For this semester I chose Year 9 & 10 Contemporary Printmaking as my elective. This class has been exciting and engaging, with us learning new types of printmaking and being able to try these different types of printmaking through different mediums.
At the start of this course, I made a conscious effort to always try and set specific targets for each lesson so that even if I got sidetracked by talking with my friends I could always jump straight back into my work. Some examples of the targets I set for myself before class were finishing my final lino-print and printing out pictures to stick into my art portfolio. I find setting little targets for myself much more effective than setting a huge one. By setting smaller ones I can pace myself throughout the lesson better, with each target reached I feel more accomplished which motivates me to move on to the next target instead of a big target goal that doesn’t specify what I need to do along the way.
When trying to come up with ideas for my designs I always leaned into cute and simple designs such as teddy bears, flowers, and cats on Pinterest since they were the easiest to draw. Along with the fact that I was working with new material and it wasn’t very wise to draw something complicated when you have no experience in printmaking, as I started getting a bit more comfortable in my abilities I started branching out and trying to add more detail into my designing. For example, for my small etching, I started off etching a small teddy bear, but when I moved on to my bigger etching I was much more comfortable and decided to etch koi fishes with lotus flowers surrounding them. The majority of my influences for my bigger prints were ocean-themed, with my large etching being fish and my current lino prints being whales.
The printmaking process that I found the most successful was etching, the final large etching I did was engaging to work with, with the process of trying to carve your design into the work being rather soothing and something I could work on nonstop without being distracted. I also think the final result was the most successful out of all the printmaking processes we tried in this course. One of the problems faced throughout this elective was when one of the printmaking processes especially etching was very time-consuming so you would have to sit there for long periods while you had to wait for people to be done at the station so you could have your turn. However, the process of printing our designs and being able to see what we did wrong, where we needed to carve more, and where we needed to etch deeper, was a really helpful experience since it let me see what I did wrong and what I needed to fix the next time I worked on my print. I didn’t have many problems with materials but I did have some problems with the tools, especially the tools used for carving out the lino, with the majority of the carvers, mostly the smaller ones, were very blunt, and every time I carved into the lino it wouldn’t cut properly making my cuts bumpy and not smooth.
I think my final work for my lino print was good, with the design being something I am very proud of, along with it being unique. However, because of the blunt carving tools, the small carvings didn’t turn out that well so I am a bit disappointed in that. But overall I think the final work was a great success!