Author Archives: Cat Among the Pigeons Press

Its been a while! Kitchen Litho 3 colour print.

Posted on by

Excellent print from kitchen-litho method.

Alison Sloggett

I didn’t realise it had been so long since I have blogged on here. I think I have been distracted but for good reasons, I have a new job at the Hereford college of arts, and have been doing a lot of printmaking, so all good !

(Must admit Instagram has also been a distraction! )

Here was my design, it is a sketch of my orchid that I have managed to keep alive ( and its flowered again!!)

Anyway, on my sketch I added registration marks in the corners after watching the creator of this process Emilie Aizier video https://youtu.be/IyRmvt7jgpU on YouTube on making a greeting card with two colours.

The next step was to trace my design onto my tin foil, firstly I just drew through the tracing paper and then I went over those lines with soft 8B pencil.

I made three plates, the first one was…

View original post 416 more words

Advertisements

Barn Owl linocut print

Posted on by

 

I finally got around to cutting and printing my Barn Owl linocut design this year. I decided to print a black and white edition as well a hand-coloured edition, as I liked them both as much as each other! Printed with Charbonnel oil-based printing ink on specialist printing paper, Zerkall 210 gsm. Coloured by hand with watercolour paint, which means each print is uniquely painted in the watercolour series. Available in my Artfinder and Etsy shops.

(© Catherine Cronin)

 

Editing Squash Screenprint

Posted on by

My first blog of the year! Very late I am sorry to say, but in January my laptop decided to die and I’ve had some trials and tribulations with new laptops and Windows 10 issues. Anyway I am back on track now. I wanted to share with you the final edition of the Squash screenprints that I created last year at City Lit.

My final set of prints looked like this; but I was not completely satisfied with the way the squash outlines got lost in the background.

 

I decided to edit the prints to create a smaller image that focuses on the small round squash. It was quite hard to decide to do away with the rest of the print because I had put so much work into producing it. I think that is always a moment of struggle for all artists, knowing when to discard work even if you feel greatly attached to it. I should mention that I sat on the decision for months! I lived with the idea before executing it. I think you have to guard against rash decisions that you might regret. Time passing allows for a fresh perspective. I am very happy with the edited images, which I have backed onto A5 card. They are for sale via my Artfinder shop.

(© Catherine Cronin)

Happy Holidays – Christmas 2017

Posted on by

As we approach Christmas I would like to wish you all Happy Holidays and I hope you all have a festive and merry break! It has been a great pleasure being part of the WordPress community of bloggers and seeing all the creative and accomplished art being produced. It is very inspiring! Enjoy this recent linocut design from me of a cheeky red squirrel in the snow amongst the pine cones.

(© Catherine Cronin)

Screen Printing part 1

Posted on by

Atomic Mess shows how you can get bold colourful screen prints just using a paper stencil.

Atomic Mess

I’ve been wondering for a while if some of my images would be easier to achieve as screen prints so I’ve been planning to learn to do it for a while now.

A couple of months ago I finally got the chance to do a screen printing course at City Lit.  In the interests of transparency I should say that I am a member of staff there, but I can really recommend the course.

Our teacher, Ben Rider was really enthusiastic and knowledgeable and I achieved some good prints quite quickly.

After an introductory session in which we learned to create simple backgrounds, we moved on to paper stencils. Ben stressed that good preparation was the key to good prints so I spent a bit of time working out some stencil ideas.

a paper collage of a stylised planta positive stencil of a plant design

I made the above designs using paper collage and cut outs to test stencil ideas. One of…

View original post 105 more words

Oak Leaves & Acorn Linocut

Posted on by

Autumn has arrived in this colourful print of oak leaves and an acorn. Actually there are two timelines in this print, the green acorn and green leaves of the summer, and then the hint of autumn change with the leaves turning orange and a blustery sky. I love the shape of oak leaves and the beauty of the sun shining through them especially when their colour is changing.

This linocut is a 6 colour linocut, created from three blocks which printed the first three colours; and then each block was further cut to remove more material and then these were used to print the last three colours. This method of printmaking is known as a multi-block reduction cut; and it means the edition cannot be printed again as you no longer have the earlier stages of the blocks to print from.

Printed by hand using Caligo relief water-based ink on specialist printing paper, Zerkall 210 gsm. The yellow highlights on the leaves and stems were hand coloured with acrylic ink (making the seventh colour in the print).

This edition has 15 prints in total and it is available in my Art Finder shop.

Here is a gallery of rough proofs for each colour printed.

 

 

 

(© Catherine Cronin)