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The Prépa Design students took part in a linocut workshop in Toulouse and were able to familiarise themselves with linocut, a technique used on a specific material, linoleum.
The one-year Design Prep course is what you might call the core curriculum, giving students the chance to experiment with applied arts in all their forms.
Linocutting is one of the artistic disciplines they will have the opportunity to try out, simply because it is an ancient engraving method, quite similar to woodcutting, which is practised on a particular material, linoleum.
Linoleum had its moment of glory with the general public, so to speak, in the first part of the 20th century as a kitchen floor covering in particular. It owed its success to the fact that it met both hygiene and comfort requirements, combining resistance to wear with waterproofing.
While linoleum has found its place in furniture design and flooring, it has also inspired artists such as Picasso. Picasso produced exhibition posters, portraits and still lifes on linoleum, as well as the “347” series of engravings, a sort of artist’s diary in which all his favourite themes are explored.
What does the linocut technique involve? Basically, the linoleum plate is hollowed out using gouges. The engraver spares the motif and hollows out the blanks. The inked matrix is used to print multiple copies of the same image. The print is reversed in relation to the engraved motif, like a stamp. By pressing the substrate against the inked plate, an impression is obtained. It works! The print is therefore reversed in relation to the engraved motif, like a stamp, a result that requires a special kind of know-how that the Toulouse students had to tackle.
Supervised by their teachers at ESMA Toulouse, the future designers experimented with this form of artistic expression, derived from wood engraving. Each student produced plates and tiles in a predefined format (alphabet, letters, portrait) before all their engraved work was pooled together.
SUBJECT OF THE EXERCISE
Test and experiment with the linocut technique.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE EXERCISE
- Each student must produce 1 linocut portrait,
- Do not exceed the required format,
- Pool all the plates to produce collective posters.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE
To discover images in a different way, playing with hollows and solids to create a pattern.
The students were also asked to create a common motif through their own work.
TECHNIQUE(S)
Inks, linoleum plates, gouges, paper.
