Modern Printmaking – A Book Review

I love craft books. There is nothing I like more than settling on the couch and paging through a book full of ideas and inspiration. If it involves making something, I am interested! I read about a program, in Abby’s newsletter, that provides new releases in exchange for reviews and signed up immediately. I have played with block printing in the past, a pre-TSNEM TSNEM project, so I was immediately drawn to this book.

As a part of Bloggingforbooks.com, I was provided a review copy at no charge. All opinions are, as always, my own.

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Modern Printmaking by Sylvie Covey* is not exactly what I was expecting, it’s more than a project book. It covers several techniques, looking at both the historical and modern processes. Artist profiles and work examples are interspersed, with lots of photographs.

The book covers the following printmaking processes: relief, intaglio, lithography, serigraphy, mixed media, digital transfers, and post-digital graphics. While each process does have a step by step explanation, it’s more of an overview. It almost felt like a textbook, covering a breadth of information instead of anything in depth.

I think this book would be perfect for someone who was interested in art but not sure where to start, or have tried block printing and want to expand. Several of the techniques sound very involved and interesting but the materials required were off putting (acids, etc.) so I’m doing some digging locally to see if anyone offers workshops on the more complicated methods!

I decided to try the ‘color reduction’ style – basically you start with one cut, ink, print, and then cut off more/another design ink, print, repeat. I had never thought about this way of printing, although I am sure it is pretty basic, and was intrigued.

I decided to go with a simple shape – sketched it out for size and then used some of the points as guides to transfer.

I dug out the Speedball kit* that I’d used in the past – the red cutting tool has a few different tips that store inside the handle.

You can see my first pass – blank ink and a single leaf. I struggled with applying the ink evenly.

I tried to cut out the first leaf and then added two more, cutting off all the background as well.

A second pass with white ink led to mixed results. Again, I struggled with ink amounts.

This was my favorite print. Clearly the work of a beginner, but the book/experience has piqued my interest! I am really drawn to the physicality of carving the block – I haul around my kids all day long but carving this left my shoulders sore. I want to try more!

Definitely check out Modern Printmaking* if you have any interest in the medium – it is bursting with ideas, examples, and inspiration! It would be the perfect fit for the reference library in any art studio, maker space, or school.