Relief printmaking: large scale surfaces

Using your source material (imagery, sketches, photos) as inspiration you will develop designs that are appropriate for woodblock printing . As part of the process they will be simplified in terms of colour, shape and tone. You will use specialist tools to carve out areas of a wooden block to relief print by hand. Working on a relatively large scale (either 3’ x 2’ or 4’ x 3’ or bigger/smaller), you will use several different blocks to allow for printing multiple colours and a range of effects.. As the course progresses, you will develop a series of variations on your chosen images that demonstrate the expressive and transforming quality of this ancient printing medium. You will be introduced to the direct and painterly technique of monoprinting that can over- printed with your wood cut to create layers, depth, colour mixes and a range of marks and qualities. Different types of printing paper will be explored.