• Explore how drawing can be transformed into print in this practical 10-week printmaking course for beginners and intermediate students.
• Working from your own drawings, you’ll experiment with monoprint, drypoint, relief printing and linocut, exploring line, tone, texture, layering, repetition and composition while developing your printmaking skills.
• Through practical studio exercises, you’ll learn how different printmaking processes can transform an image and develop an individual approach to translating drawings into original prints.
• The course uses non-toxic printmaking techniques and materials wherever possible and takes place at our North London studio, close to Crouch End, Finsbury Park, Archway and Highgate.

Explore the relationship between drawing and printmaking in this practical 10-week course for beginners and intermediate students.

Drawing Into Printmaking introduces a range of accessible printmaking techniques, using drawing as the starting point for developing original printed images. Rather than treating drawing simply as preparation for a print, you’ll explore how line, mark, tone, texture and composition can change as an image moves from paper to plate, block and print.

Through practical studio sessions, you’ll work with monoprint, drypoint, relief printing and linocut, alongside experimental approaches to mark-making and image development. You’ll explore repetition, reversal, layering, positive and negative space and colour while discovering the different possibilities offered by each printmaking process.

The course uses water-based and other non-toxic materials wherever possible, with guidance on safe printmaking techniques and studio practices throughout.

From Drawing to Print

You’ll begin by exploring different approaches to drawing, experimenting with continuous and broken lines, pressure, texture, hatching and tonal marks. These drawings become the foundation for your printmaking work throughout the course.

Starting with monoprint, you’ll discover how drawing, ink, pressure and wiping can create one-off printed images before developing more complex compositions through layering, colour and repeated printing.

You’ll then explore drypoint, drawing directly into a plate to create expressive lines, textures and tonal effects. Test prints will help you evaluate your image and make considered changes as your work develops.

Moving into relief printing and linocut, you’ll learn how drawings can be translated into positive and negative shapes and how carving can retain, simplify or transform the qualities of the original drawing.

Developing Your Printmaking

As your skills progress, you’ll experiment with registration, limited colour palettes, reduction printing and layered images.

Later sessions bring different processes together, allowing you to combine techniques such as monoprint with drypoint, drypoint with relief printing or linocut with monoprint. You’ll use these methods to develop your own imagery and begin establishing an individual visual approach.

The final session brings your learning together as you complete a resolved print or small series, select and review your work and consider presentation and editioning where appropriate.

The emphasis throughout is on experimentation, observation and developing your own visual language, rather than producing technically perfect prints. Test prints, unexpected results and variations are all treated as part of the creative process.

What You’ll Learn

• Develop drawings specifically for printmaking
• Explore line, mark, tone, texture, scale and composition
• Create monoprints using drawing, wiping and layered ink
• Use drypoint to create expressive line and tonal effects
• Translate drawings into relief prints and linocuts
• Understand positive and negative space
• Explore reversal, repetition, layering and variation
• Work with registration and limited colour palettes
• Experiment with reduction and multi-layer printing
• Combine different drawing and printmaking processes
• Use test prints to evaluate and refine your work
• Prepare simple editions and explore unique and variable prints
• Use non-toxic printmaking materials and safe studio practices
• Develop a personal approach to translating drawing into print

Who Is This Course For?

This course is suitable for beginners and intermediate students interested in exploring printmaking through drawing and experimentation.

No advanced printmaking experience is required. The course is particularly suited to anyone interested in discovering several printmaking processes rather than focusing on a single technique, and to students who want to explore how their drawings can be developed into original printed work.

By the end of the 10 weeks, you’ll have created a body of prints using a range of techniques and developed a stronger understanding of how drawing and printmaking can work together as part of your own creative practice.

View the full Drawing Into Printmaking Course Programme