Learning Activity – Sketching Techniques

1&2

We ha different choices of printmaking techniques available. We have:

Wood engraving 

This can be done by hand or by press, and this means that the image is carved out of hardwood, and then the artist creates different prints by adding ink.

Linocut

This is when the image is cut out of linolium that is soft, this is done by hand or a press, the artist puts ink on it and creates prints. The same as wood engraving, the difference is the use of linolium.

Drypoint

This is when an image is scratched out of a soft metal plate, and then you put ink on the metal plate, and then it’s put on a press. 

Etching

This is when wax is put on a stiff metal plate, usally copper. After that, some of the wax gets scratched away, this is done to form an image or a design. After that the metal plate is put into a batch with acid, this is so the acid can eat away the exposed metal. Then the metal plate is inked up, with the ink down in the grooves, and this is done before the plate is being printed off on a press.

Engraving

This is how bank notes are produced. A line is cut into the metal plate, then it is inked up, spreading out on the surface, and then wiped off carefully, only leaving ink inside the incised areas. Then is is printed off, where the ink is tranferred from the incisions to the paper in the paper press. This is usally also done with a copper plate, and with a sharp graver or a burin. 

Lithography

This is when wax is applied to flat stone tablets or a flat metal plate. Then the stone or metal plate gets inked up, but the ink will not stay on the greasy wax, it will not adhere to them, this creates a negative drawing. And then a drum is rolled over the tablet before transferring the ink.

Screen-printing

Screen-printing is also called silkscreening or serigraphy. Mask are made up, this prevents the ink from getting into sertain areas of the paper, before the coloured inks are pushed through a fine silk screen using a rubber squeegee, then past the masks and onto the paper.

Monoprinting

This is when ink is drawn on to a plate of glass, and is printed whitout the use of the press. 

Digital printing

Digital printing is a modern form of printmaking. It is is used to create limited edition of fine-art prints, in an innovative way. This is the process when you transfer a document/image on the computer to a printing device.

3: 

Use your graphite, eraser, eraser putty and blending stub to sketch spheres using the following techniques: hatching and cross hatching, blending, rendering, squiggly lines and cross contour lines. 

4: 

I have watched the Illustrator video on Lynda.com and finished doing the exercise files.

Some examples of the exercise training:

5:

For this task I have selected a poem of Edgar Allen Poe; Annabel Lee.