Layering – Digital and Traditional Printmaking’s Dirty Little Secret
For years now, traditional printmakers have been trying to come to terms with the digital revolution and how to place digitally-generated images from the more commercial sector within the framework of fine-art printmaking.
This posting will not delve into these same overcooked debates; this entry has more to do with my observations as a teacher of BOTH traditional and digital printmaking techniques.
The images shown are of “states” of a cd cover image I created as an example for my digital imaging class, where music, imagery, fonts, and text all had to be cohesive. “Walk a mile” refers to both the saying (walk a mile in someone else’s shoes) but is also self-referential. Many of the songs included on the cd are singer-songwriter, blues, and country tunes about walking, running, or traveling. The waves in the background are formed from many “slippahs” (flip-flops for you Mainland folk), characteristic footwear of Hawaii, while the character is a caricature of me in my teaching regalia.
In both digital and traditional printmaking, there is an inherent experimenting, planning, and layering that takes place. Unlike media such as painting, individual layers can usually be removed or altered for future variations or editions. Layering is extremely useful in both traditional and digital media for isolating, editing, or deleting single elements of a print, WITHOUT affecting the rest of the image. Layering is inherent to image creation in Adobe creative software; as with traditional printmaking those layers at the top (of the layers pallet) appear over the layers below them. I liken digital layering to having images on transparencies that are piled one over the next; most layers involve just one element floating in space, allowing windows to view layers below. Layer opacity in both media may also be altered to allow a range of possibilities for viewing the layers below.
Through my experience teaching high school students a variety of art media, I have discovered that this understanding of layering in art helps students transition across the digital – traditional printmaking barriers. Students that have already learned traditional printmaking have been much more adept at learning digital media because of their former understanding of layering, and vice versa.
