Laser Cutting

An instrument that uses a laser to cut a variety of materials, the laser beam, 0.2 millimetres in diameter, is powered by 1,000 to 2,000 watts and it consists of a sequence of mirrors that directs the laser beam onto the material to cut. The laser cutter is a form of computer aided design (CAD drawing from electronic data) which makes it cut on demand.
The range of materials is really based on its width, as the laser cutter that I have used does not cut through anything that is over 3mm. So therefore, materials such as paper, mountboard, cardboard and fabric are acceptable. The benefit from using a laser cutter, I have found, is that it gives a fine tolerance to the finished item and is more precise.

My experience with the laser cutter shows that programming it correctly is not an option, a fire can occur when one is not concentrating (I did this with cardboard and put it on the mountboard setting) which is extremely dangerous. Apart from that, the experience was simple enough. I read the instructions and remembered them immediately, and everything went smoothly.
Alot can get done, but the demand for the laser cutter is high.

Flock and Foil

Colourful and pretty for the eyes, this process is one of my favourites. The way to do the process is to use the screen from the screen printing process with the design already in place, and then squeegee the glue on calico and/or paper, clean the screen as well as put the glued materials on a dry rack to dry slightly. When dried to a certain degree, I was to place either flock or foil ontop of the glued material and place it in an industrial heating press. The result, when dried and peeled away, is usually colourful and shiny.
The materials are costly but the process is easy enough.
The outcome, where it can be only flock or only foil is an easy enough process, but doing it both takes time and precision. I did not have time to do both, nor the resources, but I did place one ontop of the other in my sketchbook, just to see what it could have looked like. The result, because of the chosen colours, was amazing.

Dry Point

A printmaking process that is usually used on copper plates using pointed tools to etch a design into; however, in my experimentation and for purposes of expense, I was to use thicker acetate paper as a substitute to the copper plate and a pointed metal tool as the one to etch out my design.
Drypoint, in general, only creates a few exceptional prints, because of the material getting so worn down because of the constant etching and the holding of ink within the cracks.

Drypoint was originated in the 15th Century by the Master of the Housebook. His prints were pure drypoints with the use of combining other processes. Rembrandt, a more recognisable figure, often placed dark accents in drypoint to his etchings. One of his celebrated pieces, The Three Crosses, was completely made by drypoint.
Below is my drypoint etching experimentation. It is clear that there are so many ways one can dry point , but with my stencil design, there is not much to it. I did some experimentation but this process is more of lines with empty space. This process could be used as a background.

Lino Printing

Linoleum was invented by a British rubber manufacturer, Fredrick Walton, in 1860 who was looking for a cheaper product. This easy material caught the eye of artists to decide that it was a good material for printmaking. Artists like German Expressionists, Erich Heckel and Gabriele Munter, as well as Russian Constructivist artists by 1913. Black and white linocuts appeared in the UK in 1912, which soon follwed to be full colour linocuts.

The tools usually used to cut out the lino is called the shape blade. There are many different shapes of the blades, each designed to give a different style of cut, from narrow and deep to broad and shallow. I used the broad blade to take off more lino, as well as a scalpel to score the lines exactly so that I wouldnt go off the edge. I did cut myself a few times, understanding eventually that it is better to keep my fingers behind the blade. The blades are very sharp. Also, a key note, it is obvious that what lino is cut away will not be printed and what's left behind, that is where the ink (waterbased ink).

The process is easy enough: once the image is cut into the lino, spread a thin layer of ink evenly across the design with a roller and place in position in a printing press, putting the paper over the top of the lino, the proceed to press the design onto the lino. Printing press tends to speed up the experimentation alot.

However, the printing ink is extremely sticky and tends to dry very quickly when left to its own devices. That is why, it was a good idea to roll it back and forth on a glass palette, before putting it on the lino.

Single colour lino prints were the easiest to do, because there was no need to thought of cutting different parts of the design to get more colour. However, within my experimentation, there was not enough time to explore two or more colours within the process of stopping to put colour on each part of the cutting process; instead, what I did, was to experiment the colour process by how well blending colours on the same palette is. It worked very well.

Textures and different materials, have a good effect also, especially layers that dont have a smooth layer.

Below is my lino cut, where I have scanned it in so it can be seen. There are some holes within the lino, and that is because I cut right through the lino as well as the mesh that was holding it together; this doesnt really make a problem for the final lino print but just to be on the safe side, I have cellotaped the back so nothing can come through. What is more worrying is the fact, that within my experimentation, there were prints that had colour within the white area, where there wasnt supposed to be. This is because some of the lino within the print was not cut down far enough; therefore, there is a small line from not doing enough and going too far.

Screen Printing

The three elements that make the screen printing are the image carrier, the squeegee and the water-based ink

There is the water-based mesh that is tightly stretched over a frame either made out of wood or metal. The image/stencil is produced on the screen photo-chemically via machine.
After the process of placing the image onto the screen, the stencil design is then washed off, leaving a see-through area where the ink can pass through and make a printed design.
This is then needed to dry completely before inking.
Screen printing can print on a whole variety of substances, such as paper, paperboard, plastic, metal, glass and fabrics for industrial products that could include advertising, labels etc that can be of any shape, thickness and size.

For my screen printing experience, I will be using paper, newspaper, calico, coloured paper and printed photographs (low quality).
Example of my design on scrumpled up newspaper below.


The screen, when dried, should be placed in position by cello-taping the outlines of the frame to the table, so that one does not forget where the screen is exactly placed when it has accidently moved. The material, also, is cello-taped down to the table each time to make sure that this doesn't move either whilst the manual printing is in process.
Doing this, from experience, shows a better quality of line. My chosen material is then applied by placing it under the screen, in the position of the stencil; the ink is the spooned evenly above the stencil so the squeegee can place pressure whilst scraping the ink downwards. This process makes the ink to go through the fine mesh openings when drawn over the design. For this experiementation, I was told to do four applications of the squeegee to get a decent stencil design.
When the stencil is then printed unto the desired material, I would hold up the screen and remove the design, placing it in the drying rack.
After that, the process is finished. If one wanted to change the ink colour, the screen would have to go through the process of being washed and dried every time. If one wanted to put more than one colour on the finished stencil, this is a good way to do it. Either that way, or to get a good and different effect, one would evenly put the first colour untop of the top of the stencil then place different spoonfuls of another colour in different areas of the line where the squeegee would commence the scraping of the ink downwards; I have done this and I can say that it is not a good way of getting two colours in the same design.

I did all of this according to my lecturer's instructions and found that this process is very rewarding in the fact that I can repeatedly do my design over and over and there would be no damage or difference within the process. However, it is a very time consuming process.

Colour Theory

The colour wheel, the basic tool for the combining of colours, s the most common version that holds 12 colours based on the RYB (or artistic) colour model.

There are a number of colour combinations that are called colour harmonies/chords that consist of two or more colours that have a fixed relation to the colour wheel. Some colours can compliment each other when they are the opposite colour on the colour wheel.
Analogous colour scheme is when colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel and usually match well. Triadic uses colours that are evenly spaced on the colour wheel, thus making a triadic harmony. Split-complemetary colour scheme is a variation of the complemetary clour scheme, where one chooses a base colour and uses the two colours adjacent to its complement.
Rectangle colour scheme uses four colours that are arranged in two complementary pairs.
And last, but not least, the square colour scheme, similar to the rectangle, uses colours that are spaced evenly on the colour circle.

The three colours that are exactly opposite each other on the colour wheel: red, yellow and blue.
By mixing two primary colours, there are three different secondary colours: green, orange and purple.
Tertiary colours are made by mixing primary and secondary colours together, and in total, there are six.

As well as primary etc colours, each colour has a cool or vibrant warmth to it. Therefore, the colours can be divided into cool or warm colours. Warm is evidently symbolic for vividness, energy and advances in space; cool colours give the impression of calmness. Black, white and grey are considered to be neutral.

The mixture of black/white/grey with a colour creates tints, shades and tones. Tints are created by adding white to a pure hue/colour; shades are when black is added to a colour and tones are when one adds grey to a colour/hue.