Printing Evaluation

In our new project, we were asked to create a sequence of different techniques of screen printing. In the first week of the project, I was showed how to create the printing style called sponge print. The process of making this print style, included two A4 sheets of plain paper, which I created motifs out of, by ripping the paper, and placing it onto the A4 paper, applying acrylic paint using the sponge, to make an imprint of the motif.

After applying the sponge onto the acrylic paint of choice, creating any colour scheme or pattern. What I liked about the style, was how simple and creative it was. Being able to create an artwork, simply and effectively is harder, but to be able to create something that is both simple and artistic, is quite interesting. As loads of people find it hard to create an artwork, as they have the belief that they can’t draw, it makes it extremely difficult for them to construct a creative artwork, especially prints. I was very pleased with all my outcomes, as to each outcome was quite interesting and unique from the others.

On the second week, I created mono prints created by using different inks, on plain paper sheets, and using paper to create the motifs for the print designs, kind of similar to sponge printing, but using different media. It was not difficult to create this printing style. It was not very difficult to create this printmaking style. The only difficulties I had during the process of the printmaking was taking paper from the ink and also creating the shapes I wanted within the paper. Overall this was not one of my best outcomes, and printmaking styles, but some of my outcomes were quite different, so they were quite interesting to look at because of the design.

Moreover, I constructed a lino print, of a bomb with the Logo of the bank of china imprinted on it. The way in which the print was created, was to produce a surface relief printing medium, using the cutting blades of lino to carve my design into the lino. Afterwards, I applied printing ink onto the lino, by putting a small amount, of paint on a transparent pallet, using roller to roll the paint thin and applying it onto the lino. A paper was placed onto the inked surface, rubbing the back gently, to make an imprint of the design.

I was able to generate a variety of outcomes of the lino print design, by changing the colours within the prints, by printing onto coloured and plain papers, as well as newspapers and fabric. This enabled me to create different textures of the prints that I mounted onto A1 paper.

I was very pleased with these outcomes as they came out to a great standard, even though I made a couple mistakes. I still made use of these mistakes and included them within my design to show my improvements throughout my prints. One of the outcomes that I enjoyed was my two final prints working in stencils. It was inspired by the Bauhaus movement and the logo of bank of china which was the requirement of the whole project, to create a final print that could be used by the bank of china for their new logo design and it had to include inspiration from the Bauhaus movement.

My final prints were constructed using printing technique called stencil. I very much enjoyed this technique as it was quite simple for me to construct an outcome using this technique and it made it easy to create my outcomes as it was not complicated to draw out the design. Although there was one complication of the technique, as I had to be careful on what I choose to cut out, as making one small cut would lead to the design falling apart or not make sense when printed.

In my opinion, I believe my prints were successful because, they reached the aim of the assignment brief, by creating an outcome that showed a clear link, to both the Bauhaus movement and bank of china. If I was to given the chance to do this project again, I would incorporate more details within my print design