Making my own Art Prints – Past and Present

A graphite drawing, with two prints. The original drawing is top right. I think the print at the bottom is closest to the original. Printed on cotton, (non inkjet) watercolour paper.

I enjoy all the processes of creating my own prints from my art and have done so for many years, for: cards, stationery sets, broach illustrations; to make my handmade illustrated books; for framing, or to tack it up on the wall.. and just for fun!

At first, I had a colour copier/printer, which did a pretty good job. I also used the copiers at our Community house, office supply store, or school. It was a fairly straightforward operation: lay down the drawing/watercolour on the scanner part, make some small colour adjustments, then push start.

I did this in watersoluble pastels and inkpen, about twenty years ago; and this is a colour copy of it….not sure where the original is. There’s more examples in this post, here. These dye inks tend to fade, unlike the pigment inks I now use. The blue tack is a little unsightly!

Nowadays, the technology available for these activities is outstanding! Though I don’t use a computer, as such: for me, it’s an iPad – with a keyboard attached, a big help – and my Epson (fade resistant, pigment ink) printer, that enables me to continue to make my own prints.

I’ve discovered, by: research, trial and error, and lots of practice, relatively simple ways to make good quality prints of my iPad art.

And much of what I’ve learnt, I also apply to making prints of my art in traditional art media. I share about my printing processes, on my page (and in some blog posts) “Printing iPad and Traditional Art”.

I drew this, with my fingertip, in the Procreate app. Printed on cotton (non inkjet) paper. The same paper as my graphite pencil drawing above. A “Montmartre” brand, a beautiful 100% cotton paper at quite a reasonable price.

I was mostly bringing my: watercolours, pencil drawings, paintings etc…into the iPad by using the “Scanner Pro” app, but it’s been glitchy lately, so I’m now using the iPad camera.

Here’s a link, to some posts where I’ve used the “Scanner app”.

I photographed one of my acrylic paintings, then cropped it, and printed it. The first one is onto card; I added a few more branches and leaves in Procreate. The second one, is a cover on a notebook I made.

I’m getting better at editing, which I do in the iPad’s photo section, and along the way I do small artist “proof” prints, till I get the result I want.