Printing

Printing is probably my all-time favourite group of techniques to teach. Seeing students joy at peeling back the paper to reveal their clean, crisp print is brilliant. Students learn so much from the tiniest of errors in printing and never seem to blame themselves, rushing off to try another one and get the ink more evenly applied or increase the printing press pressure. Students who previously lacked confidence in their ability, produce professional looking pieces and suddenly start to see their skill increasing rapidly.

I’ve used printing in a variety of contexts to help with just this, whether it’s a group of disengaged boys or students who have been previously told that their skills aren’t “good enough” printing can help to rekindle a bit of that art magic they may have forgotten under the weight of perfectionism. Below I have examples of student outcomes. One set is a lino reduction workshop where students learn the printing process alongside colour theory, the second set is from an etching workshop, I use recycled juice cartons to show students the fundamentals of the process without the traditional expense related to the technique. In both workshops, students always leave with a visceral buzz about their work.