Printmaking

Today I took a one day printmaking workshop at the art museum. There were only three of us which made for a nice, relaxing class. We looked at the different techniques in the Chuck Close exhibit. We were to bring a black and white copy of a photo portrait to class. I do not care to do portraits and I think it is very difficult (for me) to do someone I know. It didn't say self portrait and that was good. I didn't want to do myself. So, I found a picture of Anna. She has a funny expression on her face but I liked how her hair and eyes were.



We worked on doing a linocut from the photo. My linocut doesn't really look like Anna to me. It has kind of the same feel as the picture. First, I printed in black.


I went back a few times to do some modifying in the carving. After several black prints, I was still not very happy with it. The other two students in the class had started with gold as they were going to do the reduction print with two colors. I didn't think I was going to do that. Hence, why I just did black. Finally, I thought I will see what it looks like with the gold.


I like it in gold a little better. Then, I thought I might was well try the reduction print, too. This means you use the same block and cut out all the parts you want to keep yellow then print again on the same sheet with black. So, I gave Anna some blond highlights. I only did two of these prints. Toward the end of class I realized that I should have left the lips dark instead of making them light, duh!

I learned some things, had fun even though I'm not excited about this particular print. However, we were able to take home another piece to work on at home. I will maybe try something other than a person. It certainly made me appreciate the extent of Close's work more!