lino print – Gemma's Art

I always get so excited about Christmas. For the past couple of years, I’ve sold my art at Christmas Fayres – and my bestsellers have always been cards with christmassy lino cut prints on them.

I’m tired this year and couldn’t take that opportunity even if it presented itself, but I’ve lino cut my own new Xmas print for my friends and family to receive.

After a little experimenting (you can see below), I decided that watercolouring a patch of red underneath each bird to represent the red breast was my favourite look. It makes every card especially unique, and the red I have from my Artway kit is so vibrant!

Here you can see examples of the normal watercolouir patch, torn red paper to represent the breast, a rose painted underneath and a heart underneath. I thought that the rose and heart were a little too busy and complex, and the paper just didn’t do it for me.

Here are three examples of the finished cards.

I thought I’d include this because it’s an example of my personal artwork! I did this on a weekend home, and in all I made 26 cards.

I’ve even bought some little peppermint candy canes to slip into the cards of some of my closest friends!

So I’m heading up to Cardiff tomorrow as an intermediary point between here and Crete (joining my dad and his girlfriend Rachael before we all embark to the airport together the following day). I’m mentioning this because it means that I won’t get a chance to do art for over a week bar the small en-plain-air paintings I managed in France. I certainly won’t be able to get any more work done on the survival kit project.

This prompted a frantic stint on my sketchbook tonight, resulting in a page I’m really proud of.

The graphic design-esque nature of the two words was created pretty much on a whim, with a very vague yet different final product in mind. The feeling of confusion and sickliness comes through exactly as I’d hoped it to, though, and I count this as a massive success.

The lino cut prints were ones I created during my A Levels… but since my survival kit is themed heavily around anxiety about surviving independent life and how one is perceived to be surviving, I thought the eyes surrounding and blocking the faceless figure was only appropriate. I have a cut I’ve done in my leisure of a converse shoe I plan to use in later experiments.

One of my anxieties is whether I will make another actual lino cut I’m equally proud of soon. I’d like to try and make another complex piece like this one, perhaps similar with unsettling themes and eyes.

In other news, my blank white backpack arrived in the post! This is my container for the survival kit. I don’t have the time or resources to make a bag I’ll be happy with from scratch so I bought a blank white backpack to paint and embroider to my wee heart’s content!

It’s huge. I have a few ideas, though.

Gemma's Art

I talk about what I do and make, why I do and make it and how I could have done it better.

Tag: lino print

My Christmas Card Prints!

Wow. Yikes.