First Printmaking Project

A couple weeks ago I started working on the design for the first assignment in my printmaking class. I had a couple ideas floating around in my head already and there is one character in particular that I haven't stopped drawing for a few weeks now.

So I decided to draw a more realistic version of this girl that I have fallen in love with. I used some pictures of my own face to design the picture and I am so happy with how it came out. I couldn't stop looking at it for a few days. Even working on it in class I was already receiving compliments and good feedback. I even got a compliment from the head of the art department at my college.

I decided to trace the image normally onto the linoleum block so that whenever I printed it the image would be flipped. Carving the image out was more difficult than I expected but thankfully I only made a few mistakes and none that were too horrible.

The printing process was an absolute nightmare though and I had a breakdown in the middle of the night because I was so angry about it. I wasted so much newsprint trying to make a decent proof that I eventually gave up and emailed my professor a super long paragraph explaining my situation and thankfully she gave me an extension. I was so annoyed the night that I was trying to make my final prints that I deeply considered dropping the class.

Apart from my anger at trying to print I have also been contemplating different things I can do with this design. I am planning on scanning in the original copy to edit on the computer and eventually slap onto a t-shirt. I think it would look really cool on a t-shirt or hoodie. I even made a silly edit to see how it might look.

Hopefully I will get time to work on this soon. I've got more designs in my mind that I would like to put on to t-shirts eventually. It is exciting actually having new ideas on what I can do with my art.

Thank you for reading.