Autumn

Autumn leaf printing

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With Autumn in full effect, it’s a great time to have a go at printing using natural materials.

Our lesson on Wednesday night provided the chance to experiment with this monoprinting. This can be a quick way to produce a beautiful and unique print.

One method is to apply ink to a board and draw into it with tools or material, removing some of the ink. A piece of paper is then pressed onto the board to create the picture.

Another method is to apply ink to materials then use them to print onto paper, producing wonderful results. There are so many different leaves on the ground and they hold ink perfectly.

Here are some of the pictures produced on Wednesday night.

The reverse of a large leaf, covered with blue and red ink
Orange-red prints of various leaves
Dried leaves and berries on a wooden board
A dark red print of four leaves
Blue and red ink on a printing board, with the imprint of a leave visible. Printing rollers are in the background
An orange and grey print of leaves on a white piece of paper
A stalk with several leaves is lying in brown-red ink on a blue board. A wooden board with more leaves is in the background

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Autumn colours

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Getting busy with leaves
Cutting out
Cutting a leaf silhouete
Busy with leaves
Busy with leaves
Making art with leaves
Printing with leaves
Busy with leaves
Busy with leaves
Autumn leaves

Wednesday’s workshop focused on depicting autumn and its wonderful colours.

Angus showed the group lots of different ways that artists have represented autumn. As well as botanical paintings capturing the minute details of leaves, slodges of colour can be used to represent leaves on trees.Some artists use the leaves themselves to create beautiful collages of animals. The complex designs were astonishing and patience was clearly required to create them.

However, even more patience was needed for the next set of works. Artists cut shapes out of the leaf itself, creating intricate artworks.

And finally, Angus showed everyone an easy way to paint birch trees. Using just a few dabs of white and black paint, he demonstrated how to drag the paint across the paper, creating the look of bark, with black paint used to give the impression of branches. Green and yellow leaves can be dabbed in later.

Armed with a forest of leaves, everyone set off to get stuck in. Collage was popular, with clear pockets helping to press the leaves down onto brightly painted backgrounds. Printing the leaves also created pretty lace-like images, showing the thin veins of the various leaves.

This entry was posted in Collage, Painting, Printing and tagged .