Digital Prints
Introduction
I made my first fine art prints more than forty years ago when I attended art school — you can read this essay Camberwell Art School for more information.
When I left Camberwell I concentrated my efforts on painting and drawing as well as making collages. However I often incorporated printing techniques into my work. This usually took the form of mono-printing, but I also experimented with transfer prints, combining newspaper photos and typography with painted images. Yet I was unable to successfully master this technique, and it was not until many years later that I finally made progress. That was in 2013, when the nature of my work changed again, this time returning to figuration.
In 2017, I saw a way of developing prints in digital form. Yet I sooon realised that traditional practioners dismissed this new form of printing. This didn’t surprise me, given the often conservative views held by inhabitants of the British artworld.
Working Methods
Ultimately the process of making digital prints comes down to painting with pixels, those small elements of light and colour forming a grid on a computer screen. This often means working at a magnification that allows editing at an individual pixel level. I alternate between usung a digital pen and a mouse. Prints will subsequently be proofed and then re-edited.
My prints are either produced as Giclée or C-Type photographic, and you can see a collection here.
Another Means of Expression
Occasionally, due to health reasons, digital art has provided my sole means of creating images. Nevertheless, I enjoy the immediacy of digital print-making, together with the ability to quickly make radical changes.
Yet, many of these prints, particularly the latest ones, like No Sense of Pain. No Room For Heartache (see below), took many weeks to make, despite, or possibly because of, using AI.
I have written about my use of AI here.
Recent Prints
My most recent prints, made between 2024-2025., fall into two groups.
The first group is a series of dystopian images that depict, among other things, tech titans, shopping malls, protected borders, and a certain world leader who towers over current affairs like a somewhat nightmarish New Colossus. I will be writing more about these in due course, particularly with reference to a series of prints that I refer to as The Gilded Man.
The Gilded Man, 61 cm x 50.8 cm, Giclée, Hahnemühle German Etching paper, 2025
A Matter of Proportions, 2024, 30.5 cm x 40.5 cm, Giclée on Hahnemühle German Etching paper
The second group, depicts a wealthy couple surrounded by collections of art.
No Sense of Pain. No Room For Heartache, 2024, 50.8 cm x 61 cm, Giclée, Hahnemühle German Etching paper
Conclusion
I expect to continue making digital prints, albeit intermittently. The content of these prints is often carried into my paintings. So making the prints is an ideal way to develop visual ideas.
And one last thing, with one exception, I have never made editions, regarding each as a one-of-one print. That may change if I ever exhibit these prints.