LINO WITHOUT THE PRINTING

 

For my project, I really wanted to try to create some more lino pieces. I find it really satisfying & therapeutic to do, & I love the contrast between the lines & the solid block colours, which then reveal a pattern or image. I thought some lino prints would look nice below my framed pieces, just to add something different & show the build up to making these framed images. For an exhibition, I want to include various artworks so there is something for everyone to like. Different styles & ways of working appeal to certain people. What one person dislikes, another  might enjoy viewing.

I began this by drawing out a bird design onto the lino in pencil, going over it until I was pleased with the image. I also added some flowers as I wasn't keen on the big blank space around the bird. I gave this a free hand frame round the edge so it fit in next to my framed string pieces. 

I then used a range of different metal tips on the lino cutting tool which all had different thicknesses, so the outline was thicker than the smaller details, & the frame was the thickest part. The lino cut lino looked nice as it was & I remember last time I did lino, the smaller details ended up getting lost when I covered the lino in paint for printing. I didn't want to take this risk & end up losing the smaller markings, so instead, I painted a thin layer of black over the lino, carefully avoiding all the small lines. I left it as it was, as I feel the texture & the contrast between the etched out lines & the black space worked really well & effectively showed the image & details within it.

I love the texture you can see when light hits the lino from the side. Being able to see all the dips in the lino is really pleasing in my opinion.

I also did a feather on one of the linos. This took a bit linger as it took many attempts of drawing it out & making sure it didn't look blocky & childish. Feathers have movement & gaps within each line. Some parts are more separated & layered. I wanted to show this in my piece. I kept the feather curved & used a really small tip on the lino tool for each small line, & a thicker one for the bone of the feather. I framed this piece too, but only down two sides as I didn't leave enough room at the top & bottom of the piece to follow it the whole way round.

Both pieces fit together as they both have spaced out images that follow a similar theme of birds / nature, & they each have a frame surrounding them. The feather successfully shows motion & I like the way some parts look layered & are brighter than the singular lines.

Richard Allen

Richard Allen is an artist originally from Newbury, Berkshire. He began his career path by doing an Art Foundation course at Brighton, then a Degree in Graphic / Illustration at Kingston Polytechnic, graduating in 1987. He slowly gained interest in birds & wildlife after winning 'British Birds - Bird Illustrator of the year' award in 1993. Richard Allen creates his pieces working directly from nature, taking inspiration from wild birds and creating patterns of foliage, light, water, & natural scenery.

These lino prints remind me of traditional tattoos, with the bold thick lines & the use / importance of the directional lines which build up the image. Traditional tattoos are all about bold, bright colours & heavy black line work & shading. Although his work doesn't include colour, the bold black & techniques used for shading really remind me of this style of tattooing.

I really like Richard Allen's style, & the fullness of his work. There is little empty space due to the directional lines which give the birds movement, almost like they're passing through the scenery. These have a different style to my work due to the fuller black shading & directional lines, however, we both show interest in nature & birds, producing lino imagery of wildlife. His are printed onto paper, which means he cut out the highlights in the lino, whereas I cut out an outline instead. Mine doesn't include shading to show the highlights & darker areas like his work does. I really love the way he shades birds in this way, keeping a simplistic pattern & image, but still including the basic shapes & textures within the birds body. This is something I would definitely take from his work in future.

TRADITIONAL TATTOOS OF BIRDS & FLOWERS:

These also remind me of my string birds as they include the pops of colour that the string pieces do, & the string also creates the bold lines that you see in traditional tattoos. They are completely different in the technique & media used, but they hold some similarities in style, linework, & boldness.

CLAY CIRCLES

I also experimented by making little stamps of birds using some of the lino sheets I had & cut out small circle clay pieces, pressing the bird into the clay circle. I forgot to take pictures of the process & they did end up looking a bit crap as the clay circles were too small, as was the lino bird cut out. The stamp didn't have evenly cut edges, so the print was not as bold as I wanted it to be & they just looked really plain. I tried to put dots on one of them, sort of like stars, however this looked even worse so I got rid of two & kept one to put on the side at the exhibition. They would have worked better if I had more clay, but I was just using whatever I had left over to create something extra to go in-between my other pieces of work.