Printing

This is my first printing piece that I created, I used the technique of printing with relief, this was done by using a A5 piece of etching plastic underneath a piece of paper. Then I used a pen to draw the kiwi from direct observation, this then put pressure onto the page to be applied where the pen marks are. I really enjoyed this way of printing as I could see the drawing with then pen, however when you turn the page over the drawing is transformed into a detailed and solid piece with the strong black lines and areas of the excess ink that had been left behind from when the paper was on top of the plastic. I believe that the kiwi was a great fruit to work with when I was creating this piece as it has brilliant shapes that are simple enough to be picked out and to work with my pen. The piece is one colour but does not have to come across this way when looking at it, as the viewer can identify the fruit and use their imagination to show where the colour should be. However if I would do this piece again and refine it I would make sure that I do not leave as much ink residue around the background of the piece so that it looks a lot more simple.

Here is another printing technique called reduction. This is called reduction because you are reducing the amount of ink there is on the etching plastic. Firstly I cover the whole area of the etching plastic with printing ink and then use different tools to take away the ink by drawing and moving the surface. Once I have done this, I take the plastic to the printing press, I damp my paper and put it through. Once out you can see to the left that the ink is left behind and there is not ink where you have moved the layer. This is a really good way of creating a printed piece because of the way that you can position the ink however you want it and also if you make a mistake then you can re apply the ink. The difference that I feel is the most important difference between the relief method is the thick lines you can create if this, however you can only draw strong and sharp lines with the pen for the relief method.