Using the print room

Following my stresses with the garrotte cut, I took a break from CoP and linocut something for myself.
I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do something good!
So I sketched and cut a Krampus print in the spirit of christmas..
This might seem irrelevant to talk about in regards to CoP.. but it made me realise a lot.

I didn't have any pressure when I was cutting this. I just did it because I wanted to.
I didn't overthink it or plan it out too hard. I just drew until I was happy with the sketch and then started cutting.
I spent a good four hours or so doing it, and I was absolutely stoked with the outcome.

Another point is that I used my keyholder privileges and spent the day in the print room, using the press. I couldn't believe the difference.
I've always worked from home really, having bought some high quality blades and inks.. but using the print room facilities escalated the professionalism and quality of finish on the prints to a new level for my work. Using the oil based inks instead of my water based ink, and the press gave me much higher quality prints, cleaner lines and more even pressure. Plus the oil based ink stays wet for longer and goes further.
I came out with stronger, bolder prints.
I loved it too, the whole process was really good fun. I learnt a bunch about how to vary the pressure by swapping out the padding etc to get different quality of prints..

I feel like an idiot that it's taken me this long to realise how good the facilities are here and how much using them benefits my work.

I've been limiting my work quality by printing by hand at home
not making the most of the facilities when i really really should because I wont have them anymore after these next 5 or 6 months.

What this taught me about my work this module:

- I've been putting way too much pressure on myself to make something absolutely amazing. I'm not just getting on with it. Being less stressed out and pressured will result in better quality outcomes because I'll be enjoying the process.

- Using the print room will give me miiiiiles higher quality prints, as well as access to more coloured inks, and the benefit of having people around me that I can talk to / work with / share ideas with etc.

- I CAN do good linos still! I haven't lost it, I've just been too critical and too stressed out.

- The Holbein exercise has been the best thing I've done in the past year of linocut. It's definitely had an impact on the way that I cut now, the marks that I make, what I choose to leave blank / white / solid.