What do I mean – line quality?

I often think about the line quality of different printmaking techniques. The word quality may be misleading.

Sometimes the word quality refers to good or bad. But that is not how I am using it, when I talk about the line quality in artwork.

Maybe character of line would be more accurate. I am talking about:

• thick – thin
• smooth – jagged
• expressive – loose
• sharp – mechanical

It is also about the expressive nature of the line and the feel or emotions it evokes.

A line can vary in thickness, length, shape, color, value and direction. Lines often help lead the viewer around the artwork.

In my practice of printmaking without a press, I explored different methods of printing that allow for and create marks of different line quality.

The different lines in these gelatin prints were created by the different tools that I used to produce the mark. For example the “bubbly” like lines were offset printed with a mop head.

Trace monoprinting is all about the fuzzy line quality that is made on the back side of the paper to transfer the ink to the paper. Ohh I love that fuzzy line and I am not sure you could get that kind of mark any other way.

In soft plate relief printing, I search for tools to make lines with a wide range of characteristics. In the print above, I used pens, container caps, weeds, twigs, pattern wheel and masking stencils. I think I love turning found objects into printmaking tools.

I hope I have given you a new way to think about line in your artwork.

If you want to explore line making and the soft relief plate process with me, then read the details on the workshop page and join us.  Class starts soon.

The post What do I mean – line quality? appeared first on Linda Germain.

from Linda Germain https://www.lindagermain.com/2019/02/what-do-i-mean-line-quality/

All about prints