NEW TRADITIONS IN PRINT

2015-2019 | The Arts in Education Team, Education Department of City & County of Swansea, led by Caron McColl | Arts Grant Manager | City and County of Swansea, worked in collaboration with Swansea Print Workshop on the New Traditions in Print Project over a period of four years. The project was supported by the Arts Council of Wales for the whole of that period.

The aim of the project was to provide schools with a wide range of support to explore the full potential of using the excellent Hwb in creative ways, marrying creative input with digital competency.

Robots | Gendros Primary School | Briannie Blake | Jack Roberts

Hwb is the Welsh Government’s digital learning platform used by schools across Swansea for cloud-based teaching, learning, and administration. It provides free access to tools like Microsoft 365, Google for Education, and various resources, with Swansea council implementing “anytime anywhere” access via safe digital infrastructure.

Castles | Waun Wen Primary School | Sam Newell | Alex Ward

All the students taking part had full access to ipads not only to draw directly on them, but to share the work with classmates and other schools taking part.

Swansea Print Workshop supports the production of original prints, entirely printed by hand. These are not reproductions but involve original, specially prepared, art work for processes such as screen printing, lino printing, etching and wood engraving. This enables us to print on handmade papers of many kinds, including specialist papers for printmaking that have an archival profile.

We print in small ‘editions’ which are usually less than 100 and can be as small as 3 or 4. Each print of the edition is numbered, for example 15/30 – the 15th print out of an edition of 30. After the edition has been printed the block is traditionally destroyed or marked in some way to prevent more being printed. These processes allow us to produce unique prints in a very ‘hands on’ way . It also supports a direct interaction with a range of physical materials and equipment for making images, which we think is important in this digital age.

The process of drawing is very important to us in every process we use. We can use it to train the eye to observe and store information visually. It can also be an important release for a journey into our imagination finding ever-new ways of expressing ourselves.

The challenge of the project was to explore the creative possibilities of producing an original drawing using the full potential of an app on an ipad.

The SS SamTampa Disaster | Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Llwynderw | Ava Godwin | Mia Williams

Advantages of developing an image working digitally

Drawing on an ipad or tablet is no easier than drawing on paper and in some ways is more difficult as the pen or stylus is quite slippery on the glass surface. But many graphic artists and designers find there are so many advantages that outweigh this drawback. So much design is done digitally nowadays that it makes sense to introduce young artists to the advantages and creative possibilities of a digital approach.
It is possible to save successive ‘stages’ of the design so that more risks can be taken in trying out new things. Also the students who work more quickly can embark on another design/ or be encouraged to add more detail or experiment further without risk of losing the best example.
It is very easy to ‘undo’ or ‘erase’
A major advantage creatively is the possibility of working white on black OR black on white. A design will often have much more impact if it has a 50/50 ratio of black to white or even more with a higher percentage of black.
Another big advantage is the range of ‘brushes’ and textures that can be used.

The digital drawings were then transferred to screens and the students each print a small edition. We produced 4 prints per student depending on the complexity and time taken. Swansea Print Workshop retained one for exhibiting purposes and we also sell them along with our other artist print sales. They have proved very popular purchases on our open day sales.

It is important to us that all the prints are all signed off in a professional way with the edition number/ the title/ and the signature carefully written in pencil. This emphasises the ownership of the piece and gives it a professional finish.

The remaining prints were retained by the school. We like the students to have a copy to take home as soon as possible after the workshop. There would also be a spare copy to have framed and on display in the school.

Pop Art | Gowerton School | K Helieite | S Cooling | Tamika Choi

The last phase of the project is a public exhibition at the Civic Centre in Swansea and alongside our members exhibition at Seaside Gallery, Volcano

Teacher support

Swansea Print Workshop supported the schools with an informative and inspirational teacher’s pack [LINK TO PDF] which included information on techniques, ways of displaying artwork and entrepreneurial ideas.

Caron McColl’s intimate knowledge and long working experience of the schools in Swansea was invaluable in this project. She helped us identify the schools who most needed and would make full use of what the project had to offer.

An inservice training session was arranged for all the staff and a detailed Teachers pack LINK provided. Posters for exhibitions and short video films LINK with all the work were also provided.

Experienced outreach artist, Nina Morgan assisted by Lynne Bebb of the Arts in Education Team worked closely with staff to determine a suitable themes.

Cilâ Primary, Gendros Primary and YGG Llwynderw explored the themes of Castles, Robots and the SS Samtampa Disaster Taking inspiration from their classroom studies, pupils were supported by teaching staff and the professional artists to explore the themes through drawing and printmaking.