Summer School - 2 Days: Viscosity & Drypoint Printmaking

Summer School – 2 Days: Viscosity & Drypoint Printmaking

Discover the expressive potential of colour and texture through layered intaglio printmaking. This dynamic course invites participants to explore viscosity printing and drypoint, focusing on how colour, pressure, and surface interact to create rich, multi-layered prints.

What The Course is About:

Viscosity printmaking is a specialist intaglio process that exploits the resistance between oil-based inks of different viscosities. By altering ink stiffness and using hard and soft rollers, multiple colours can be printed simultaneously from a single plate, without colours mixing. Participants will learn how to control ink consistency, plate preparation, and rolling sequences to achieve complex chromatic effects and depth. The course is suitable for artists with a background in drawing or painting, as well as beginners, abstract practitioners, and those with no prior experience in printmaking. Through guided demonstrations and hands-on experimentation, you will develop mark-making strategies, explore colour layering, and learn how viscosity printing and drypoint can be combined within a single artwork. You will work with oil-based inks throughout the course, gaining a strong technical understanding of intaglio materials and processes while developing your own visual language.

Materials Required:

What to bring to the first session: Drypoint place A4 size or bigger (x2), Greyboard, Card, Drypoint /etching needles, Scrim/ tarlatan, Printing paper, Brushes, Sponges, Cotton buds, Rags, Masking tape, Scissors, Craft knife Paper and further items can be purchased from the school shop. Tools will be provided.

Previous Experience:

All Levels

End of course:

What will I achieve? By the end of the course, participants will have developed a cohesive body of printmaking work, strong technical skills across multiple intaglio processes, and a clearer understanding of how to integrate work with colour, line (drawing imagery) into their own contemporary print practice.