Course Title: ART120 Printmaking I
Term: Fall and Spring
Course Description
An introduction to the discipline of printmaking, concentrating on the technical aspects of relief, lithography, and monotype processes.
Course Learning Objectives
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Introduce the students to the appropriate terminology of the relief, lithography, and monotype printmaking processes by examining past student and professional examples.
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Offer hands-on technical demonstrations that will give student’s safe, working knowledge of each process.
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Deliver specific information regarding equipment and materials that are oil-based and/or inherently dangerous. Safe clean-up procedures also covered.
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Engage the class in critical dialogue by conducting open lines of communication during critiques that analyze historical and contemporary sources in visual problem solving.Provide the students with preliminary industry-standard matting/presentation and digital documentation skills as applied to fine art prints.
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​5. Provide the students with preliminary industry-standard matting/presentation and digital documentation skills as applied to fine art prints.
Course Learning Outcomes
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Students will be proficient in delivering print-related vocabulary and will be able to offer references that provide them and their peers with process and conceptual influence.
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Students will be able to safely execute printing processes on the intaglio and lithography presses in order to produce monotypes, lithographs, and relief prints.
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Students will be able to safely clean and remove spent materials and understand the chemistry and inherent dangers of hazardous printmaking materials.
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Students will be able to critically examine their own work, as well as their peers in a positively uplifting manner during critiques and presentations.
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Students will be able to cut and construct mats that most effectively present their works by utilizing archival presentation materials.
Final Digital Portfolio
Printmaking students are required to maintain a Digital Portfolio documenting all printmaking projects created in the course. Documentation techniques will be covered in the class. The work and digital portfolio will be reviewed and graded for accuracy and quality. High resolution images should be utilized for personal websites, social media, as well as the shared ART 120 Google Drive folder.
Digital Presentation/Paper
All Art 120 students are required to present one Digital Presentation via either Powerpoint or Google Slides. At the beginning of the semester, students are randomly chosen into two groups to present either the week before midterm or the week prior to final critique. One three page paper, which includes a formal title page and works cited, along with a 5-10 minute digital presentation is required. Students are timed for the duration, which should include a grouping of at least ten high-res images by an artist-printmaker whose work is no older than the year 2000. Items are to be saved via Google Docs and all hardcopies must be honor-pledged by hand. Students can also choose to imbed videos no longer than one minute in duration for their peers to view any process-technique related studio footage.
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Skill Building Exercises
Sketchbook: Students are required to purchase a new sketchbook and continue production throughout the entire semester in order to build upon concepts and acquired skills. The sketchbook will be a frequently used reference and should be accessible during each course meeting. It should contain the course syllabus, a minimum of 20 thumbnails and 5 preliminary sketches/drawings/compositional studies per each project, ideas and thoughts, notes on instructions, equipment and material usage, copied publication/online articles and reproductions of interest, vocabulary, experimentation w/ materials, proof prints or rubbings, and color studies. Content and quality are to be worked on throughout the semester in order to establish a life-long professional habit. One completed 75-100-page book is the requirement. At least 9”x12” in size.
Portfolio: Students are to first protect their printed projects inside of a wrapped, acid-free packet prior to placing editions or series within a portfolio before turning in for grading purposes. All assignments must be turned in a sturdy portfolio that can open flat or in an envelope style. Students can purchase a portfolio or make one; it doesn't have to be overly expensive as long as it easily accessible and sturdy/stiff. The portfolio should be large enough to contain prints with an extra inch or two around the largest sheet of paper in order to protect prints from damage, including corner or edge folding, wrinkling, or denting. If handmade in order to save money, acid-free paper must be lined between the packets of printed works and acidic receptacle such as corrugated cardboard. Each packet must be labeled with each project’s print process and a list of the prints contained within.
Final Presentation: Students enrolled in ART 120 (Beginning Printmaking) are required to mat one print from each of their main editions as well as two of their monotypes for final critique/presentation. A thorough demonstration provides students with instructions on how to construct an industry standard classic, hinged window mat. The resultant grade will be based on proper construction and craftsmanship that entails clean, sharp beveled cuts, and accurately measured borders without smudges, construction lines, or fingerprints. Archival/acid free materials are required, utilizing white mat board and white or black foam core for backing. Various opportunities throughout the academic year also provide students with optional how-to framing demonstrations.
Professional Practices: Students are provided instructional methodology on the application to national juried show opportunities, as well as publication application. Digital and device based image capturing is covered along with Photoshop post production techniques in documentation. Students are required to upload all printed projects to Google Drive as well as any call-for-entry applications.
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Course Projects
Monotypes: Ongoing production throughout semester
Monotypes/singular impressions are the first process introduced in beginning printmaking. Production of these unique impressions are ongoing throughout the term. Students are required to produce twenty impressions in all, not including trial and mishap attempts. Demonstrations draw upon the use of color, layering, defining viscosity, variance in size and format, painterly versus graphic aesthetics, and the incorporation of shaped based stencils. Experimentation in mark making, additive and subtractive applications, and ghost printing are to be worked upon prior to fabricating a more cohesive collection post midterm.
Student’s imagery is open-themed, though required to be intellectual in scope by incorporating their liberal arts/Gen Ed studies. Students are demonstrated after midterm how to insert drawn based visuals by way of the trace-mono technique. Beyond midterm, the expectation of craftsmanship and more conceptually based subject matter is of importance.
Additional requirements/skills: Students learn to be more open to mistakes and intuition with this printmaking process due to the exploratory nature of this technique. Students are required to continually produce color and compositional studies within their sketchbook, though are also encouraged to foster intuitive decisions that are less stringent than the three major projects. Paper handling, water submersion/soaking, and the use of the intaglio press are covered on day two of class.
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Students are given a range of sizes and formats to work from, including:
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Full sheet scale 30”x22”
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Half sheet horizontal scale of 15”x22” or 11”x30”
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Half sheet vertical scale of 30”x11” and 22”x15.”
Project 1: Woodcut Relief (Self Portrait)
The woodcut comprises a full-scale facial portrait with the key component a strong likeness of self that fills 70% of the composition. The remaining 30% of space should reflect additional elements that are conceptually driven or beyond that of decoration. A strong emphasis is placed upon: value that is derived from mark-making from resultant carved marks, tonal variation in line quality, high level of rendering in facial features, and a thorough understanding of positive and negative space vis a vis the black-line and white-line variations inherent within the relief process.
Mark making is produced by use of graphic arts implements such as illustration markers, Sumi ink and brush, as well as varied drawing media that is experimented upon by each individual student. The birch ply matrix is scaled to 16”x12”. Students are to hand-carve using an assortment of industry standard carving gouges/tools.
Each limited edition consists of 5 prints, including the BAT print which establishes the final edition of
multiple originals. Students are required to use traditional laid white or off-white Eastern papers for the final edition. Hand printed demonstrations prepare the students to produce woodcut relief prints using the Japanese burnishing methods, either with wooden spoons or barens. Black oil-based inks are required for the edition.
Additional requirements/skills: Students work through several weeks of thumbnails and in-progress sketches until the final image is established, final image transfer to matrix, and several trial proofs on lesser grade paper. Drying time is also of utmost importance, which establishes learned behavior in regard to meeting deadlines and final goals.
Project 2: Lithograph (Varied conceptual prompts)
The one-color, black and white lithographic edition comprises a direct drawing on a ball-grained aluminum plate. Each semester the premise of this project changes, with an example being “Here Today/Gone Tomorrow.” The main emphasis is in achieving continuous value scenarios by way of tonal relationships, dark to light modulation, and rich nuances built upon layers in order to achieve near black.
With project one consisting of a familiar subject, project two fosters the growth of conceptually defining ideas to match visual themes. Additionally, compositional skills are furthered by employing mathematical ratios, working away from direct center, and considering negative space by way of gum arabic stopout.
Students work on woven, hot-pressed Western papers and also learn varied methods in preparatory handling techniques due to humidity and temperature. 18”x12” images are printed on 22”x15” sheets.
Additional requirements/skills: Because lithography is a chemically inclined print process involving an antithesis of grease and water, students are taught to understand the thoughtful contact between their
drawing materials and the delicacy of their aluminum matrix. Plate and image size are both important factors, so students are required to create “key transfer papers” in order to obtain proper registration/image placement.
Students are thoroughly demonstrated on the chemistry-based procedures of the etching process, safe press usage, and proper post-production archival care. Students work through several weeks of thumbnails and in-progress sketches until the final image is established, final image transfer to matrix, and several trial proofs on lesser grade paper. Drying time is also of utmost importance, which establishes learned behavior in regard to meeting deadlines and final goals.
Project 3: Reduction Linoleum Relief (Varied conceptual prompts)
In their final project of this course, students produce a 3-color, reductive matrix on fine art grade linoleum in order to build upon their use of color. Because the subtractive manner destroys the matrix from one color to the next, students are taught the need to thoroughly consider each layer and subsequent portion of this process. Each semester the premise of this project changes, with an example being “Southern Gothic.” Chromatic value, temperature, and dark to light elements are core components of this print technique in which students thumbnail by way of illustration markers, as well as incorporating the use of Adobe Photoshop to foster sequential understanding. Project 3 builds upon the intersection of fine art, graphic media, commercial illustration, as well as the incorporation of literary/publishing scenarios in order to serve the students modalities in which their practice can be further used outside of the classroom and studio.
Unlike the hand-printing method of image transfer in Project 1, the reduction linoleum is press-printed by
way of an intaglio press. Students are taught how to set press pressure, safety protocols, and proper storage of wet prints in order for proper drying time. Students are given a range of sizes to choose from with this project, in the allotment between 16”x12” to 12”x12”.
Additional requirements/skills: Students work through several weeks of color studies, thumbnails and in-progress sketches until the final image is established, final image transfer to matrix, and several trial proofs on lesser grade paper. Ink additives are covered during this project, which include drying retarders and transparent inclusions for additional ink overlays. Students are also taught how to fabricate simple, yet effective registration guides geared towards post-baccalaureate home printing for lifelong learning.
