Hannah Firmin

Printmaking Art Literacy Presentation

Printmaking Explanation:

Fine art printmaking- Simply put, the artist chooses a surface to be the plate. This could be linoleum, styrofoam, metal, cardboard, stone or any one of a number of materials. Then the artist prepares the printing plate by cutting, etching or drawing an image onto the plate. Ink is applied (in a variety of ways) and paper is pressed onto the plate either by hand or by way of a hand-run printing press. The finished print is pulled from the plate.

Relief Printing: The oldest form of printmaking, dating back to ancient Chinese culture. This is printing from a raised surface. A simple example of relief printing is a rubber stamp pressed into a stamp pad and pressed onto a piece of paper. Relief printing plates are made from flat sheets of material such as wood, linoleum, metal, styrofoam etc. A roller - called a brayer - is used to spread ink on the plate. A sheet of paper is placed on top of the plate and the image is transferred by rubbing with the hand or a block of wood, or by being run through a printing press. The completed print is a mirror image of the original plate.

Artist Biography: display picture #1

Hannah Firmin was born March 24^th, 1956 (she’s 58 yrs old today) in Kent, England. Growing up Hannah knew she wanted to pursue art, so as a young adult she moved to London to attend Chelsea College of Art, and then The Royal College of Art. Since then she was married and has 2 children. Hannah has worked as a freelance illustrator for books, magazines, newspapers and for advertising and design companies. In 2004 Hannah was awarded the award for "best book cover" at the British Book Awards.

In Hannah’s words…

“For all my work, I use a method called relief print. This is a traditional style that involves printing from an engraving on a block, usually wood or lino. It’s perfect for creating a period look and feel.

The first step in the process is the research, finding images from the relevant period. For this job it involved looking at manuscripts in books and on the internet. I try to find images that have a very strong feel of the period; the way the faces are portrayed, the stylized architectural detail as well as the design and composition. The fact that these illustrations were usually produced as woodcuts is crucial and influences how I complete my illustrations. It’s a process of gathering the right information, reminding myself of the look required, but instilling it all with my own personal style, which has developed over a long career.

Once the drawing /design is approved, I then reverse the image onto the block and engrave it in exactly the same way that images would have been engraved 500 years ago, with the same tools and technique of engraving. The final stage is to print from these blocks on my Columbian Press, which was made in about 1840. This method of printing creates a genuine feel and style of the printed image that has no pretentions; it is a very basic and simple method of producing an image.”

Show picture #2 of Hannah’s 1840 printing press

·         Here's my Columbian Press, designed by an American called George Clymer from Philadelphia in 1813. My press was built in London sometime after 1817 and is still operational today!

Show Artwork:

Spring- #3

·         

      Limewood block print

·         Hand colored

·         Point out where cute would have been made

Bountiful Bird- #4

·        

       Linocut (design made from cuts in linoleum mounted on a wood block)

·         Notice details (fish, sun etc)

The wind- #5

·       

       Linocut

·         Hand colored

·         Point out the movement of wind portrayed in picture

Winning Book Cover- #6

Skeletons- #7

What part of this relief print would be raised on the printing plate? HINT: white ink was used

Project:

What you need:

• Ink
• Styrofoam
• Pencils
• Printing paper 6”x6” & scratch paper (white larger paper)
• Brayers
• plastic tray
• Table paper covers (grey papers on bottom of cart)

1. Pass out Styrofoam & scratch paper to each student
2. Next, encourage the students to sketch out a rough draft of what they want on their Styrofoam plate (not required)
3. Students draw an image onto the styrofoam using a pencil. (some lead may get on the plate- that’s ok)
4. Remember, your printed image will appear in reverse!  
5. ADULT- With a plastic spoon, place an amount of ink equivalent to toothpaste on a toothbrush on the plastic tray (can run up to 4 color stations)
6. Each student chooses 1 color to roll onto their printing plate
7. Roll both ways to allow the roller to evenly pick up the ink. Roll until the ink comes up in little "points".
8. Roll away from yourself slowly - to pick up ink.
9. Roll toward yourself quickly - to remove excess ink.
10. Place printing plate on table cover
11. Once the roller is "inked", roll onto the printing plate.
12. Once the printing plate or block is "inked", place paper on top and using your hand, rub lightly over the surface of the paper.
13. Remove paper and see your print! Lay printing plates and prints out to dry.

**When all are finished please throw used spoons away, rinse off and dry brayers & plastic trays. Thank you!**