Acrylic Printing

November 2014.

I facilitated an Art for Work’s Sake session recently which produced some interesting and unexpected results, including the first print ever made in one of these workshops.

Inspired by these printed works I thought I’d give the technique a try today. At first I had it in mind to try printing a skyline in acrylic onto a water colour wash. I had a few attempts, using way too much paint at first:

Too Much Paint

A couple more attempts followed – this time with less paint, producing a very different effect. The print either barely copied or splurged.

Skyline

Something I observed from this session is the effect that a heavy load of acrylic paint makes when you pull the original away from the print surface. I’ll see how I can use this in future.

DSC_3819

I found this afternoon frustrating so I scribbled some angry wax pastel and crayon onto cartridge paper before packing up for the afternoon.

DSC_3810

I thought I felt in the mood for some art today – maybe not?

Update: Jan 2016. I reflected on writing this post and playing with using acrylic paint to make these prints – and  I’ve come to really like the work. I ended up cutting out sections of the purple and white printed paper and made four small pieces of art from it. Together they are ‘The Art and Soul of Better Work’. I kept one – and I gave the other three away.

Update: Jun 2016. Several people have remarked on the skyline painting/print, saying how much they like it. I’m in the process of producing a limited edition print of the design.

Author: Doug Shaw

Artist and Consultant. Embracing uncertainty, sketching myself into existence. Helping people do things differently, through an artistic lens.

0 thoughts on “Acrylic Printing”

  1. Maybe you had something in mind before your started, that’s stopping you seeing the creative beauty (and moods) in the pieces above.
    Someone told me to paint for the bin 😉

    1. Close up of earlier print

      Maybe I did have something in mind, in fact that’s a great point – I’m sure I did. And I’m now also pretty sure it got in the way. As always – this art stuff is a fascinating process and I very nearly threw all this stuff away. I am now literally watching paint dry and seeing things emerge and change. I may yet bin this stuff – and on this occasion I am glad I held off a while. Learning all the time 🙂

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