• Explore how drawing can be transformed into print in this practical 5-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 positive and negative space 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 5-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, layering, positive and negative space, texture 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 observational drawing and experimental mark-making, working with line, tone, texture, repetition and variation. You’ll also explore positive and negative space and begin simplifying and selecting imagery suitable for translation into print.

Starting with monoprint, you’ll explore additive and subtractive mark-making, drawing into ink, ghost prints, layering and transparency. You’ll develop your Week 1 drawings into printed images and begin refining imagery for further printmaking.

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 the course progresses, you’ll develop your imagery through monoprint, drypoint and linocut, learning how line, texture, tone, positive and negative space, layering and overprinting can affect the final image. You’ll make proofs, evaluate the results and refine your work as it develops.

In the final session, you’ll review the drawings and prints produced during the course, select and refine your strongest imagery, prepare your plate and paper, work with registration and test printing, and make adjustments to ink, pressure and wiping before producing a resolved final print.

What You’ll Learn

• Develop observational drawings as source material for printmaking
• Explore line, tone, texture and contrast
• Translate drawings into monoprints
• Experiment with additive and subtractive monoprint techniques
• Create a drypoint plate using a non-acid process
• Develop expressive line and texture through drypoint
• Create a linocut using positive and negative space
• Use carving, texture and layering to create tonal effects
• Produce and evaluate proofs
• Refine your work through test printing
• Work with inking, wiping, registration and layering
• Use water-based printing inks and appropriate cleaning methods
• Develop an image progressively through different printmaking processes
• Produce a resolved final 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 5 weeks, you’ll have developed your drawings through monoprint, drypoint and linocut, produced and refined proofs, and completed a resolved final print while developing a stronger understanding of how drawing and printmaking can work together.

View the full Drawing Into Printmaking Course Programme