Relief printing at home

Learn how to create multiple surface relief prints from commonplace items, with detailed guidance from the tutor. Expand your printing skills and create artworks without any specialist equipment. By the end of the course you will have made your own printing dolly, created a selection of textured samples to use in future work and have composed and printed a finished relief printed piece.

Ability: Suitable for all
The minimum time required to watch and respond to the video content and complete the tasks is 6 hours. The tutor also recommends how you can develop your work further so that you can continue to use the skills acquired on this course for future projects. Six months of online access to all of the course content.

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Introduction to tutor Mary Dalton and workshop overview

Getting started

Health and safety, tools, materials and set up requirements

Workshops

Making your own printing dolly
Finding and selecting printing materials
Making your own texture samples
Printing a composed image

Completion

Aftercare and cleaning
Drying times

Course includes:

Access to our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with course content
A series of instructional videos to work through and repeat at your own pace
Practical tasks to complete
Helpful materials suppliers list
Student online gallery where you can post images of your work for tutors to review and comment on
Support from the college and tutors via email should you need it during the course
Additional notes and ideas

You will need:

Tools

Craft knife/scalpel
Scissors
Stick glue
Palette knife or old plastic loyalty card
Cutting mat or kitchen wooden board
Gloves (will get inky)
Apron/old clothes
Piece of clean plastic or glass sheet approximately A4 minimum (e.g. old picture frame perspex)

Materials

Black oil based printing ink or black fine artists oil paint with mediums added to increase tack. (The following product has been specifically designed to change oil paint consistency to printing ink for Relief: Print medium for Relief and Intaglio by Schmincke)
2 pot plants or objects suitable for still life inspiration
Scraps of papers, varying thickness and textures
A collection of textural surfaces, man-made and organic, from around the home, cleaned of loose detritus and dry
Handful of clean, neutral coloured paper approximately A4, can be print-out paper
Pile of cut up tissue paper/newsprint/magazines approximately 15cm x 15cm
Grey board or similar thick card
PVA glue
Old cotton rags for clean-up
1 tbsp vegetable oil
For the dolly:1 palm sized smooth rock/ potato/lump of air-drying clay
1 cotton rag approximately 40cm x 40cm
Big handful of cotton rag strips, no longer than 40cm
2-3m of wool/twine/string
1 elastic band

Set up

Please make sure you have a table or surface suitable to hold an inking station to one side, a clean paper on the other side, and a central portion where you will print. Be aware it can get inky, so do please cover surfaces if required.

Have a question? Read our FAQs.

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Mary trained at the Royal College of Art, graduating with an MFA in Printmaking. She has been teaching since 2008 and her work is in the collections of the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Library as well as international museums.

Mary's practice is engaged on a daily basis with the ancient environments and woodlands that surround us and that were once the backbone of this island and indeed the world. These landscapes hold stories of the past and a lifeline to save our future and Mary's practice is dedicated to communicate these tales of what is often left unsaid or unseen.

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Relief printing at home

Tutor

Mary Dalton

Course content

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