Aspen Field Linocut Print

It's a long holiday these days because yesterday is Singapore's National Day. I managed to take some time to finish the Aspen Field.

The Details

 It is a limited edition of 3. I planed to have 4, but one is not so great and I scrape it.

Spring Garden Hand-Pulled Reduction Linocut Print

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I found that it is easier to use colors in the night under the electrical lights to make print than painting. If I painted at night, I would find in the next morning that the colors were very wrong under the sun light. But printmaking seems has no such problem. Thus, I can work in the night when others are not "bothering" me.

It is very relaxing when cutting the lino board. I feel very therapeutic to do printing after a normally very occupied and sometime chaotic day.

The  Details

One of the exciting things about printmaking is that there are lots of surprises. You never know what exactly it is until you pull the paper.

Spring Field Limited Edition of 4 Reduction Linocut Print

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It takes a whole day for me except being a "Minister of Home Affair (MHA)" to complete the print. I just got this "MHA"  new job title from my family members because of the things I do such as chauffeur everyone around to save their traffic time, design daily meal menus and take care of bills and make appointments. It sounds better than "House Wife", isn't it?

Applied the First Color

While making the print, I need constantly to look out to balance the different colored parts and white parts during cutting the lino board.

Since I cut away the color that I want to preserve after applying each color, if there is a big mistake, I cannot reverse it. The print just has to be thrown away. If nothing goes wrong, in the end, the lino board surface is almost cut away flat and all the hard work of previous cuttings are gone. That's why the reductive relief printmaking is also called "suicide printmaking".

Applied the Green Color

Applied the Dark Purple Color

This is a limited edition of 4 prints. The print measures 7 x 12"/17 x 30cm with a boarder for frame.

Details

Details

I like the texture of the print. Because I use hand to push the papers to make print and that makes uneven texture of the color. I think this is the beauty of hand-pull printmaking.

Summer II Reductive Linocut Print

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I am surprised that I have managed to make three prints after coming back from vacation. I love cutting the lino mat.

I worked till 10:30pm last night to finish this Summer II print. Once start working on a piece, I have the urge to finish it. Otherwise, it is very difficult for me to go to sleep.

This is a a long version of lotus flower. It measures 6 x 11.5" /15 x 30cm. I find that the size is very nice for printmaking.

I made four editions of this print.

Details

Summer Reductive Linocut Print

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I am quite pleased with the result of the prints. The deep minty green is very pretty full of life of summer.

with signature

details

Summer Work in Progress

Summer is the time when Lotus are blossom and in their most beautiful moment. I love the minty green leaves with the deep purple and pink flowers.

I made four editions in these reductive lino cut prints. I managed to complete two rounds of color today before it gets too dark to work any more.

One important factor about printmaking is to get the contrast of dark and light color right. The process of making reductive print is normally to print rounds of color on the same image from light to dark. If you cut too much in the beginning, the image will have too much light color. If you didn't cut enough, the image will have too much dark color. It is important to control the cutting while applying the corresponding round of color.

Nature Print Flower with Leaves and Watercolor Paints

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This is a watercolor print created with falling leaves.

 School holiday is here. I need to find activities for the 4 years old. The nature printing is a good and fun choice. The kitchen is the  ideal little studio for printmaking.

 This is a card we created together. My daughter was so happy to do the print. Every time she pulled the leave from the paper, she would say "wow, so pretty".

Lily Pond Reductive Original Linocut Print and Printmaking Exhibition

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I managed to create the Lotus Pond using reductive printmaking method as well. The print is created by the several steps involving cutting and applying colors:

1. cut away the white flower part, apply pink color
2. cut away the pink flower part, apply green color
3. cut away the green background, apply dark green color
4. ink dark red in the plate and wipe away the dark red in the lotus leaves part in the plate so that the dark red only apply to the lotus flower bud

I like the pink shining through the  green.

The print detail

 Silkscreen Print

I went to a printmaking exhibition last night in "The Blank Canvas" art gallery.  It is an exhibition of series of artworks by 8 emerging print making artists. I like this silkscreen piece.

Lotus Pond Original Relief Print

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This is the limited edition relief print from linoleum cut. I am thinking of making 5 editions.

The print is printed on heavy watercolor paper.

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I also try something new. I print one version using Acrylic Black Color and then apply watercolor on it. The first one is using water based ink and it is not suitable for watercolor wash, i.e., the black color will come out and make other colors dirty.

I like the color version as well. It is very pretty.

Poppy Reductive Original Relief Print

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A new technique of printmaking using reductive method was taught in last week printmaking class. The reductive method prints something on a paper and then cut some away to make another printing on the same paper till you get the final result.

It requires a lot of planning to work on this method such as the colors, sequence of cutting needed and number of editions you want to produce.

In this work, I planned to print two pieces. I position them using tapes to align them properly during subsquent layers of printing. The gomuban, an easy to carve vinyl rubber plate is secured in the middle.

Once I printed the color I wanted, I cut away it and thus it will not be covered during the subsequent printing.

This is the third printing and last one, when the light colored green is cut away.

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This one is created by using the final plate with black ink. I found the black and white one is also very pretty.

Spring Large Laminated Print

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I made this Spring Large Laminated Print measures 16 x 20"/40 x 50cm. The customer is going to mount it on a foam board. It is really nice when it is printed in such a big piece.

More information about Large Laminated Print (LLP).

Three Poppies Wood Block Original Print

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This print is made from the cutting board with colors during print making. I added colors on the poppies to be more interesting. The print is pulled from pressure machine.

This is a limited edition prints of 5.

Three Poppies Wood Block Original Print

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The printmaking class is getting more and more interesting. Last Thursday's lesson is wood cut printmaking. We use some PVC foam board as wood block to cut images.

The image is drawn in the PVC foam . It is cut from there.

After several trial with three fingers slightly injured, I finished this Three Poppies. I'll make it a Limited Edition of 5. You will get the number of the print when you buy the print.

The details of the cutting.

The above is the details how the PVC foam is cut. I like the irregularity of the lines. This makes print is so interesting.

I set up a corner in the kitchen as a small printmaking studio. Without a pressure machine, I use a spoon to press the paper. It has lot of fun!

Small Village Original Monotype Print

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For black ink plate monotype printing, there are two ways you can create a print. Either you drawing on a paper covered on an ink plate to create the print or you draw in ink plate and pull the print from the plate. I like drawing on paper method as it gives more white areas than draw on ink plate.

The above Small Village is created using drawing on paper method. After drawing on the paper, the ink is absorbed by the paper and leaves marks on the ink plate.

 Negative Print

I use towel to erase some ink from the top and lower part of the flowers from the ink plate. Use the ink plate I pull a negative print of the small village.

The most interesting way of the monotype print is to use natural materials from the garden such as leaves, twigs and grass to create prints.

This is the print with some flowers leaves. It is created with applying brown color to ink plate. The leaves are covered with green, red, blue colors and placed on the ink plate before they are pulled with prints.

The result is getting better in the second and third pulls of prints. I only created one print from three pulls. The first one is two thick with colors and the last one is too light. The second pull is the best.

Print from Original Flying Flowers Monotype Print

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I like the yellow and black color combination. This is a reproduction from the flying flower original monotype print. I found that it is really nice to put the yellow flower.

This is an example view of the print when it is framed.

Flying Flowers Monotype Print

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I made several prints using monotype technique in the printmaking class this week. The above is the Flying Flower that is created using ink plate and drawing on the paper placed on the plate. There are two original prints created from the plate. One is the positive print and another is the negative print below created by using a pressure machine.

The another way to create monotype print is to draw directly on ink plate and then use pressure machine to create the print. In most case, there are only  two originals can be created using such method. Because after two prints, the ink is gone from the plate.

The above print is created by drawing on the ink plate using a pencil and a cloth. I use the cloth to rub away some ink on the flower petals before it is printed one paper.

I think the first one is created successfully. I use some paper cut-out to ink the round flowers. It has very nice effect. The following is an example display of the print.