relief prints

Today I cut some foam evergreen trees inspired by  a chain of trees I cut last summer. I like the organic unevenness of the branches.

I cut 3 different sizes with the hope that they would work together to create some cards. They were easy to draw and cut with little scissors.

Then I test printed the relief blocks on some paper with speedball block printing ink, gold, yellow, green, brown and blue.

I added a star to the top of the tree and the Hope stamp below and then a few dark blue dots. I may not use all the trees together but I do like how the littlest tree with the medium tree as shown above.

I think I will have some fun playing with these stamps.

Have you tried  this method of printmaking without a press? Go for it!

Today I made soft carved block inspired by my foot prints. I am in a class called Contemporary Practice at Essex Art Center. We are being challenged to “map” a part of our body.

So I inked up my feet and did some printing on some big papers and started to get inspired. I am not sure where I will go with the idea but I am open to discovering.

I wanted to “map” a body part that was positive or a celebration of health or strength. First, I was thinking about focusing on my knee because it has been in so much pain for the last 6 weeks. Then I decided that I did not want to give that pain any more attention or power.

So since I like printmaking and bookmaking, I think my mapping project will take on that type of form. I hope to learn more about the wonders of feet in the process and celebrate the limited focus on the 2 things that I stand on all day.

I like the idea that I am using my feet to print and to make the art that is about discovering my feet – a full circle. So for day 16 of my #seedrawprint challenge I have made two printing matrices, a block for each foot. To see all 16 prints for the challenge click through the first few pages of my blog or if you are on instagram check out @LindaGermainArt and #SEEdrawprint.

Today, I carved a couple more eraser blocks with the words JOY and LOVE. I did a pencil drawing and then placed it face down on the eraser and rubbed to transfer the image to the block for carving.

I am getting faster and more confident the more blocks that I carve. I did a test print with a water based marker, and was pleased.

Then I rolled up some blue and red ink and printed a couple of cards and added some words to some gelatin prints to “finish” them off.

Sometimes the word works perfectly and then other times not so much.

I like to have the freedom to experiment and let it be ok to fail sometimes.

This is day 14 of my #SEEdrawPrint challenge, to see draw and print each day in November.

Do you have favorite ways to finish your prints? I introduce a few of mine in the Printed Gifts workshop. It is available now as a self study. Check out the details on the printmaking workshop page and see if it is right for you.

Today I did a drawing of an orange slice and carved a small block for printing.

I really like the simple shapes and the block can be printed in different ways to create several different patterns.

I test printed the block with a purple water based marker and then I could easily remove any of the high spots that were transferring ink in unwanted places.

Then I printed a few small cards with the word “smile” in the middle. The orange slices feel happy and full of sunshine. They make me want to smile.

I decided that I like block printing for working with paper and I like thermofax screen printing when printing on fabric. So far I am keeping up with my 30 day challenge to #SEEdrawPrint each day in November. Click through the blog posts to see the rest.

I like to add text to my prints. So I doodled peace, love, hope and joy. Today I carved the “PEACE” block out of an eraser.

I transferred the pencil image to the block by taping the drawing face down onto the block and burnishing on the backside.

That works out great to reverse the image so that it prints out correctly. I used my speedball carving set to scoop away the background and leave the PEACE.

I was able to get a pretty clean carving. It printed up nicely without a lot of noise from the background. I printed some test impression on scrap paper and then printed a couple of cards.

I like how it looks with the PEACE in different values. I inked the block once and printed it 3 times. I experimented with printing on different colors and textures.

Check out a few more block printed images  a leaf, an abstract stone and abstract patterns with foam blocks.