At last! Finished the assignment …just a teeny bit late though.
It’s obvious I massively overestimated the amount of time I’d have to work on the course, and a lot of other things got in the way, but I have enjoyed the coursework very much. There were times when I felt really stuck though: as an example I took ages over those poppies taking many, many prints before I was reasonably happy with the double-masked version. And later I remember I kept putting off the “textured landscape” exercise that eventually led to the “Cockenzie Power Station” print (which I was very pleased with in the end). But I now feel so much more comfortable about all the techniques and with being more experimental. In particular:
- Registration and masking – lots here including how to create a positioning “frame”, how to use hinged masks, how to achieve isolated positive masks, how to plan a design to aid registration, and the use of lots of tracing paper and masking tape.
- Inks – using acrylic medium to extend drying times (a little), mixing and rolling inks and achieving the best coverage for printing.
- Textures, mark making and backdrawing – using a range of materials and tools to create different effects (especially tea leaves)
I expected at the start of the course that I’d be working quite a bit at the Edinburgh Printmakers Studio, but in the end did it all at home – once I got my little workspace set up, with the glass table, it was just much easier.
So, onwards and upwards to Assignment 2. Hopefully I’ll have more time to devote to the next stage!
