Linos and Printing

Due to the fact I had been working heavily in the lino cutting medium I thought it would be appropriate to look into other artists who have worked in the reduction print medium (specifically lino cutting). I also looked into a brief history of the medium and its relationship with illustration.

Block cutting has been around for centuries with famous artists such as Hokusai and William Blake making woodcut prints during the late 1700s to early 1800s. Lino cutting specifically came around in the early to mid 1800s and it's early usage in art was actually for illustrative purposes such as book covers and bookplates. An example of this is a bookplate made for August Sassen in 1895 by Williem Coenraad Brouwer (shown below).

Willem Coenraad Brouwer Print.jpeg

^image taken from The British Museum website

This is contextual research to do with the relationship between my chosen medium and the specialism I am taking.

I've looked at printmakers such as William Blake and his "Songs of Innocence and Experience" book and also the work of Edvard Munch and his darker more surrealist pieces.

WILLIAM BLAKE.jpg

^William Blake songs of innocence and experience, plate 10, tate

Some of my initial ideas came from William Blakes style of book making that combined illustrations and text, I even considered making poetry for each nostalgic memory and illustrating it much like the relationship between Blake's illustration and poetry.

Muncg Woodcut.jpeg

^Anxiety, 1896/1897, woodcut on Japan paper. (image provided by National Gallery of Art)

Above is but one example of Edvard Munch's work with wood printing. Tonally and stylistically I wanted to explore similar themes about nostalgia and the darker interpretations of it's effects. The woodcarving process is similar to that of Lino and Munch's techniques and imagery inspired some of my work.

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