Realizing emerging trends M.TAF 4 Ms Anila Khokhar What is linocut?

Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut. The material is linoleum which was first manufactured in 1860 as a floor covering material. It is made of rubber and linseed oil with a hessian backing. The material is softer than wood which makes it easier to cut into the surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge. The surface is cut in reverse of the final image. The areas cut away will be white (the paper colour) and the area left in relief will hold the ink and print black or a colour. To make a print; the surface of the carved blocks is inked using a rubber roller. Then a sheet of handmade Japanese paper is laid on top. The back of the paper is rubbed by hand with a baren (bamboo leaf covered disc) or the back of a very old smooth wooden spoon. When all the inked parts of the image are transferred evenly onto the paper, the paper is peeled away from the block and hung up to dry. Using the hand method of printing allows for more subtlety and fine detail to be revealed as the pressure used can be varied. After the print has dried it can be hand coloured by the artist using watercolors paints or gouache. No two colour prints in an edition are identical as subtle variations in colour mixes and application result in each print being unique.

HISTORY OF LINOCUT
The linocut printing technique was first used by the artists of Die Brcke in Germany from 19051913 where it had been similarly used for wallpaper printing. However, the artists initially described their prints as woodcuts which sounded more respectable.

In the 1920s and 30s in England Claude Flight ran a linocut printmaking class at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. This relatively new art form of printing was thought to enhance the new theories of artists such as Filippo Marinetti, the leader of the Futurist movement. With its radical simplification it was the perfect medium for evoking the speeding up of modern life...hustle...and restlessness. Claude Flight had met Marinetti in London and promulgated in his linocut classes the Futurist message. Two well know artists who developed the linocut technique from this course were Cyril Power and Sybil Andrews. Major artists such as Matisse and Picasso both worked with linoleum. Matisse executed over 70 linocuts between 1938 and 1952 in a fluent white-line technique. Picasso started to reuse linoleum in the late 1950s and early 60s. He was stimulated by Hidalgo Arnra a printer whose shop was near Picassos studio in the South of France. Picassos innovation continued with his use of the one-block process he devised for colour printing. This is known as the reduction or suicide method of printing. Once an area of colour has been printed it must be carved away to allow it to show through when the next, darker colour is printed over the top. This calls for extreme accuracy in laying the same piece of paper onto the lino block. It also means the artist cannot go back to the previous colour because that part has now been cut away!

What is screen printing?

Screen printing is one of the early methods of printing. It involves the passing of ink or any other printing medium through a mesh or 'screen' that has been stretched on a frame, and to which a stencil has been applied. The stencil openings determine the image that will thus be imprinted.

History of Screen Printing

Screen printing was a technique first used by the Chinese almost 2000 years ago. They used human hair stretched across a wooden frame to form the screen. To that they attached a stencil made from leaves stuck together into different shapes. This was probably the first application of screen printing ever.

Subsequently, the Japanese adopted the screen printing process and used woven silk to make the mesh and lacquers to make stencils. The use of silk is where screen printing got its alternative name Silk screening or silk screen printing. In 1907, it was Samuel Simon near Manchester who patented the first ever industrial screen printing process. Many years later close to the First World War, John Pilsworth of San Francisco developed the Selectasine method, which basically introduced the concept of multi-color printing using the same screen. Different areas on the screen were blocked out for different color inks, thus resulting in a multi-colored image. This technique became hugely popular for printing signs and posters in large quantities. From using hair to silk to polymer meshes, screen printing has come a long way today. The basic technique remains the same but with innovation and the introduction of electronics and computers, screen printing is no longer recognizable as the technique Simon patented. Equipment Used In Screen Printing No matter what kind of screen printing machine you have, there is some basic equipment that will be required. The stencil or screen is of prime importance since it determines the design and image output. It refers to the frame, the mesh and the photosensitive material on which the image is created. The Squeegee is the rubber held in a rigid handle. Ink of course. The substrate refers to the surface on which the design is to be printed. The machine base, which holds the substrate and allows the screen to print on it and is often the base of the entire screen printing unit. Here are some tips on helping you select the best screen printing equipment for your use. Applications of Screen Printing The substrate or surface on which screen printing can be carried out is too many to be named. Any surface that can be stretched and printed on is a surface for screen printing. The CD covers you see are all screen printed. Beautiful cotton fabrics, silk and polyesters can all be screen printed on. Posters, signs, flyers, advertisements on buses, t-shirts and even watch dials are screen printed. Thus there are many applications of screen printing.