Monday, 19 January 2009

another linoprinting experiment

experimenting with oil paint and coloured pencil, Vivien Blackburn
Another linoprinting experiment for me, again printed using oil paint (prussian blue) and finished with coloured pencils in purples, turquoise, blues, viridian and brown.
I'm realising I actually really like the more painterly feel of inking the plates this way, and the way that no 2 prints will ever be the same. Real printmakers will gasp in horror at this! the point of linoprints is to be able to produce lots of images that are the same!
I used the colours to enhance the mystery of the darker areas (that was the intention anyway :>) ) and bring out the light of the moon.
It would be interesting to do a print using chine colle* to provide the colours (that last e should have an acute accent but I forget how to get to accents). This would work better with a press though.
This is simply done on cartridge paper - I must also dig out some of the lovely Fabriano Rosapina printmaking paper lurking in my plan chest :>)



* chine colle (with accent) is simply collaged elements that are printed over.

9 comments:

Gesa said...

hm, yummy! what moon, what sea, what colours! but you used some umber/siena too in addition to the prussian blue? i must say, i'm with you on the use of prints... being immaculately reproducible isn't all that appealing, i think. i think i'll try out some nocturnes via lino print next.
great post!

Pam Johnson Brickell said...

Beautifully luminous! Let the printing purists scream. This technique is wonderful!

vivien said...

thank you Pam and Gesa :>)

I can hear them screaming!

did I forget to list the browns? yes you are quite right Gesa - in cp - but the paint I used for printing was pure Prussian Blue.

Lindsay said...

I could not agree more with Pam! It's very painterly.
No one does blues like you Vivien.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Just perfect Vivien! I love the colours. And lino is made for experimentation. Perhaps we'll call this the Blackburn technique from now on... :)

I have a lino in the works, you've got me thinking about variations on it now.

Sarah said...

couldnt agree more with everyone, break the rules thats how great stuff happens. I love this viv and try the colle thing too that would be interesting.

Cathy Gatland said...

This is stunning - makes me want to pull out some old linocuts and play with them...

vivien said...

thank you everyone :>D

I'd love to see everyones experiments - leave links on my blog???

Laura Frankstone said...

This is just magical!