"The artist...is also a born adventurer. His explorations, unlike those of a tourist, are rewarded by the discovery of beauty spots unmentioned in the guide books, and with tireless curiosity and an exceptional proneness to wonderment, he will come upon objects of remarkable interest overlooked or even shunned by more disciplined observers."

Augustus John, R.A.




Sunday 17 July 2011

Mini Prints

I came across a call for entries recently for a British Printmakers Council Exhibition, so I thought I'd have a go. I downloaded the entry form and requirements and then started doodling some designs. Then I read the entry requirements. 'Works should be no larger than 8cm x 10cm.' I read that and thought 'that seems small.' Then I drew it out and realised how small it is. I work bigger than this when I do thumbnail sketches! For printmaking the smallest I usually work is slightly under A5. Anyway, thinking that the simpler the better. I discarded my rather grand ideas for what I was going to do and drew out a design based on the Avocet sketches from a couple of weeks ago. I really struggled with this and couldn't get anything to go right. I needed an edition of a minimum of 10 prints. By the time I had finished I had 5 useable prints, and that was with only four colours! So for what its worth here is the result of my efforts.

Avocets
4 Colour Reduction Linocut. 100m x 80mm.

Back to the drawing board with a bit more care than I took with this.

5 comments:

Jennifer Tetlow said...

Quite a challenge to work so small - sometimes good to work differently?!

Keith Tilley said...

It looks good to me.

Stuart Brocklehurst said...

Hi, Thank you for your comments.

Jennifer.
It was a challenge to work so small. Even when doing scraperboards I usually work to a bigger size. Although the print does look ok I think I oversimplified it.

Keith.
I'm happy with the prints that came out but I lost too many in the process. I had a lot of trouble with the registration. Particularly on the final colour. I think that was partly because there was far too little black left in the end to grip the paper. If I had been using a press it might not have been such a problem. But rubbing the paper with a baren I had a lot of trouble stopping the paper from sliding across the block.

Katka said...

I can well imagine how difficult working that small would have been. I have enough trouble at 200mm x 240mm.

That said, I think the print looks fine. Perfect size for cards yes?

Stuart Brocklehurst said...

Hi Katka
Yes I think they would make a nice card, It's something I've been thinking of with some of my other prints.