The end of the semester in Printmaking.

The end of the fall semester is coming up at end of this week, and as is usual at almost any educational institution, it's been an intense couple of weeks of activity.
At the beginning of the semester, I structure the printmaking class so that first we work with a more direct process - relief/woodblock printing - then moving to a section of the class devoted to intaglio printing.  Both of these sections include several demonstrations on technical and historic aspects of these media.  Each student is required to complete multi-plate or multi-block prints, incorporating the use of color by using layers of transparent and opaque colors from those individual plates or blocks.  AFter printing state proofs of each image with different color schemes, each student is required to print an edition of the one color scheme that is chosen as the best resolution of the image after a group critique.   After completing the relief and intaglio print editions, we then move to stone lithography.  I will complete a separate post on each of these sections of the print classes, but I wanted to show that at the end of the semester each student is allowed to complete their final print edition using any print media (or, combination of any print media) that has been presented in class this semester.  You will notice in the images below that students working in a sophisticated manner, working in all those media.  I'm excited to see the finished print editions, and they are all working hard.

One student completing the first etch of the stone, one student completing her drawing.

A student using a "rainbow roll" of color for the color block for her final woodblock print.

Finishing the drawing on a stone for a lithographic print. 

A student printing the first of two colors for his final stone lithographic print.

Printing the first state of a print after the first line etch is completed.

A student printing the first of three colors for his final intaglio print edition.