
Jer Wat (aka Jeremy) is a printmaker, illustrator, and video producer living and working in Winnipeg, Canada. His love of art goes all the way back to his early childhood when he would draw on anything he could get ahold of: napkins, scraps of paper, and even his arms!
He was in a fine arts high school program when he discovered his passion for printmaking. However, his printing practice lapsed after high school until the pandemic hit in 2020!
Recently, while Jeremy was home in Toronto, he stopped in at an art supply shop. Jeremy grabbed a lino carver and some linoleum blocks. He was excited to experiment with printing once again and to relearn what he had forgotten since high school. Jeremy loves to dive into new techniques, mediums, and ideas, and he thrives when he is teaching himself something exciting and fresh.
Jeremy started to teach himself with small stamps of his illustrations, to practice carving lines and focusing on small details. Carving linoleum blocks is a delicate process. The artist uses lino cutters of various sizes and thicknesses to carve out the negative space in the eventual print.
The quality of the lines depends on the pressure and angling of the lino cutters, so a printer has to be very careful as they carve. It takes patience and precision to keep from slipping and carving out important details.
However, the inking process might be even more difficult and time-consuming. Although it seems straightforward, applying ink to the block and transferring it to the design’s final surface is incredibly tricky. The ink needs to be the right consistency and the artist must hone their technique to evenly apply ink to the block, making sure to cover each area with the same amount of the pigment.
Whether you’re a classroom teacher teaching art for the first time or an art teacher who could use a simple refresher, check...
March 27, 2023We love receiving artwork from our Shared Walls partners across the city, showing us what they’re up...
March 26, 2023At IPaintMyMind, we are super passionate about screen prints. When our founder, Evan La Ruffa, first started collecting art, he couldn’t...
March 24, 2023