I can’t trace down anymore where I came across this printmaker… it might have been on a Printmaking Society website, or a recommendation shared via Facebook, or during a Google Image search… it’s difficult to remember to always make a brief note. I’m glad I did at least create the stub of a post with the link to the artist’s website to make sure I wouldn’t forget. I still have to develop a method how to keep up with all the inspirations the internet provides.
The linocuts of Ian Phillips show similar qualities to what I liked in Anne Lewis’ linocuts. There’s a graphical cleanliness to them which I admire and that I’d like to achieve in my own works as well.
The dog on a carpet has a lovely fur texture, where brown shades look through the black overprint. Another lovely detail is the white on the paw and the light fur in the neck, where the paper comes through. The landscape to the right I like the tonal gradations within the turquoise/blue/black colour. Both prints open the standard image rectangle to an outline influence by the subject’s forms, which is a great compositional element that I’d like to try out in my own work as well.
These two depictions of water use a different technique which effectively conveys the character of the surface. The left shows the breaking up of waves at the shore, the right shows a quietly moving surface with its reflections. I wonder how the clean linework was achieved in the right print because I’m finding it very difficult to cut fine relief lines into linoleum.
Another interesting detail is the printmaker’s sign which also appears in the next two prints. It’s really a nice detail and I can imagine to develop something similar for my prints as well.
The waterfall print shows another different water subject, “moving water” this time. The depiction of water came up in my watercolour module and I really like how Ian Phillips treats this subjects and conveys the essence of the particular situation. I also like the texture and shapes of the bushes behind the large rocks. The dark purple colour in the linework that creates these bushes returns in the rocks and the darker background trees, and I think this is an important factor contributing to the coherence of the elements in the composition.
The last print I selected for a close look was shown in the section ‘studies’. I really wondered about the distinction between ‘studies’ and proper prints, and the place these studies have in the linocut reduction process. By the time there’s so much carved away that only the black elements of the ducks remain, a new plate must be started if a complete print is to be developed. But I love the lightness, transparency and unfinished, casual style of this linocut.
What can I learn from these prints?
After looking for an hour or so at all the prints presented on Ian Phillips’ website, I had a brief feeling of saturation, as if the prints, despite their admirable technique and execution, became somewhat predictable and less exciting. I checked back to my own multi-block print to compare whether there was the same feeling (after having looked so often at them before), but no. With some days distance and a fresh eye, I found that my messy technique had added something mysterious to the print that made them less immediate to grasp. They are not as clean and precise and maybe that’s what keeps me interested when looking at them. But it may also be a personal thing, simply because it was me who made them.
I’m more than aware how much I can learn by studying other artists’ prints and there are many aspects I adore in the prints by Ian Phillips. In addition to this, his website is extremely well structured and easy to navigate. He presents a tutorial on reduction linocut which contains helpful tips for the process. For example, he uses photoshop to enlarge his original drawings to the final print size, and creates the final drawing based on a printout of the enlarged version.
Another good tip was to use China Markers to transfer the drawing onto the linoleum plate. China Markers are wax-based pens that draw well on smooth surfaces like glass or porcelain, but they can also be used on paper, as underdrawings in watercolours (water-repellent), or for details in oil pastel drawings. Now for image transfer, Ian Phillips traces the right side of his drawing with the marker, then reverses the paper and re-traces the backside, which transfers the pigment from the underside drawing onto the linoleum. This sounds interesting and it might help me to get over the irritation from a variety of different marks on the lino. China markers are available in different colours so I could also try to differentiate between the colours I’m going to use for a print.
Other ideas for my own work
– Ink a plate with two or more colours to achieve a gradation, or ink the plate only partially. I think this technique was used for the ‘Honeybourne Evening’ print with the blue-gray colour on the hill area. This looks as if the ink had been applied fully in the uper half of the plate and was faded out in the lower half, so that more of the red colour comes through in the foreground
– It might also be interesting to combine multiblock printing with the reduction method, for example using two plates in a sequence of different colours and different elements of the subject printed interchangingly. That’s certainly too complicated for me now, but might be interesting to experiment with in the future.
– again the breaking up of plain rectangle image boundaries. I like it a lot how Ian Phillips has applied this in the ‘Howl’ and ‘Honeybourne Evening’ prints. There are more landscape prints where he uses the technique and it looks really interesting.
Resources
Artist website http://www.reliefprint.co.uk/index.html