Printmaking that I have practiced has been a type of block printing. A lot of what I have done so far was about 20 years ago.  I haven't given it up, I have just been more occupied with painting lately.  I would carve on wood, Masonite, linoleum and some strange materials also like hard plastics.  Often I used a material that I had used in the sign and graphics business like a material call extruded pvc in place of wood. It seemed to me to be very similar to medium wood density when I carved on it. I would carve the plates for the various colors to be inked and pressed.  I started out making some simple presses also, but in time I found the print came out much more clean and solid, a look I was partial to, when I just used a simple wooden spoon.  I normally used acrylic ink which would dry very rapidly and there wasn't much time for me to get a clean transfer onto the paper surface, so the spoon transfer seemed to be the fastest way.  When it comes to paper my printmaking art may be different than some printmaking artists. My choice of materials  may have  not been completely orthodox to some.  I started out using smooth bristol paper for my printmaking, perhaps because of it being used often for pen and ink. So most of all of my printmaking art has been mostly on smooth bristol paper. I like the look. It has a very clean look which I preferred, for the prints and I go back now and look at old prints and they look just like when they were printed, so it seems to hold up very well. I was mainly concerned that the paper be acid free, none yellowing and that the ink adhere well which it has.

Printmaking is so cool. I started to do art with silk screen and then was very impressed with the look of printmaking and pursued it instead - so I think maybe I tried  to make my printmaking look more like silkscreen work perhaps, very solid colors and clean lines?

Randall Street