Embrace your drawing skills

drawings / /

You can try to avoid drawing and there are lots of tools that you can buy to make art with out drawing: stencils, stamps and coloring books.

sketch to make better monoprints

But if you have the urge to make your own unique art, to express your voice in the world, then the tug of drawing is there. I know because I am not natural lover of drawing. I judge myself too harshly and I often resist the process.

Now I know that:

  • drawing is an essential tool.
  • the more I draw the more I like what I draw
  • drawing can be a scribble (google Cy Twombly drawings)
  • kids drawing are moving because they are raw and real

block printing gives your drawings life

Try this:

  1. Get 10 sheets of copy paper
  2. Stand up, wiggle, breathe and stretch
  3. Arm out stretched and soft pencil in hand, scribble with abandon
  4. Just keep making marks
  5. Get a new sheet when you feel like it


How did it go?

  • Did it feel fun? Foolish?
  • Were you judging or allowing?
  • Did you trust yourself?
  • Do you feel looser, freer?

 

 

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4 found tools for art making

inspiration / /

Try this:

Pause in your day and see the awe that is right before you.

Found tools for printmaking

My goal is too notice the awe in the everyday and let it inform my art practice.

I think that is the magic of living creatively.

To do it daily,

even if it is only for brief moments.

These things above are probably trash to most people. But to me they are:

  • a stick with an intricate pattern that I would love to print somehow
  • a smashed twig that might paint some cool marks
  • used tea bags that would be great for transparent prints and books
  • delicate dried flowers that inspire simple line drawings

I challenge you to pause and notice the inspiration that is right in front of you.

Could it inform your art?

One tool I use to help me pause is daily journaling and a bit of meditation. Here’s a free Meditation Experience with Oprah and Deepak Chopra No affiliation, just sharing what works for me.

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Repetition and Variety in Printmaking

foam plate printmaking / /

Composition is important to the success of a piece of artwork. And yet sometimes the concept seems so hard to get a handle on. It is abstract and subjective.

Collage is one way that I create pleasing compositions from less than perfect prints.

Collaged Relief Prints by Linda Germain

Today, I am working with soft block plates. I pieced together some soft block relief prints and thought about the principles of repetition and variety. I put together several pieces of some original prints to make one pleasing relief print.

Foam printing plates ready for printmaking

A couple of ways that I embrace the ideas of repetition and variety are:

  • I allow myself to use simple circular shapes that I like
  • I play with making those shapes with different tools
  • I make a lot of prints and that way the elements reveal themselves

Artists display of relief plate prints by linda germain

For example:

I like circles, so I use wire, caps, pencils and other tools to make circles with different quality of line. This way I repeat the simple shape and create variety by the different types of lines. This helps compose a pleasing print. It helps bring it together and make sense.

Want to learn more?

Check out current online classes.

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Make a Baren for Relief Printing

relief prints / /

A baren is often used in relief printing to make a crisp even transfer of ink to the paper.

a baren for printmaking without a press - linda germain
Underside of a Speedball baren for printmaking

You can find barens made of bamboo and more modern materials at online stores and big chain art stores.

I like to use what I have before I go buy a new art tool, so I have tried:

  • medium sized jars with flat bottoms
  • a nearby paint bottles
  • and a porcelain door knob

Some folks recommend a wooden spoon. But I like to have a bigger surface.

a handmade baren for printmaking without a press - Linda Germain
a homemade baren for printing without a press – Linda Germain

I made a simple baren with some simple tools that I had in the studio. You will need:

  • clothesline rope
  • double sided carpet tape
  • scissors, knife
  • an old tube sock
  • small piece of sticky vinyl
  • maybe duct tape
  • 5″ circle of rigid foam core

You may be able to substitute some of the supplies with things that you have in your studio. Look around and think outside the box.

The goal is to make a hand held tool that will slide evenly over the paper and help to apply even pressure to the paper. And help you make beautiful prints!

This is what I did to make a homemade baren for printmaking:

  1. Cut a circle of stiff foam core
  2. Cover the foam core with 2 sided carpet tape
  3. Tightly coil clothesline rope on top of the tape
  4. Craft a cover. I used an old tube sock, put the base about 1/2 way through, stretch tight and tie the ends together to create a handle
  5. Finally, I added a sticky vinyl to the bottom, so it would slide more smoothly.

Interested in more history about barens then check out McClain’s.  They have some great info.

If you are interested in relief printing and want to learn more then join us in the next class – check out the printmaking workshop page.

 

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