Echo Illustration and Prints

Echo Illustration and Prints is the creative pseudonym of illustrator and printmaker Isabelle Lin, who is currently based in Meudon, a small town on the edge of a forest on the outskirts of Paris, France. “It took me very long to work up the courage to embrace a full time art career,” describes the printmaker. Isabelle changed tracks often throughout her formal education, going from physics and chemistry to world literature, sociology and economics, to cognitive science and linguistics. In drawing and printmaking, however, she is self-taught from library books, online forums, and YouTube tutorials. “A series of eye-opening life events as I was writing my doctoral thesis in linguistics made me realise that I might not always be able to make art as a hobby while working a desk job, and that made me take the jump after completing my degree,” says Isabelle.

Her working process varies a lot depending on the project, however, overall, she always starts with pencil and eraser, and will optionally rely on digital tools if that saves some time or effort. Isabelle typically starts sketching ideas on random pieces of scrap paper, then either refines the sketch entirely on paper, or takes a picture of it to bring it in Procreate to finish the drawing digitally. She does most of her thinking at the drawing and carving stages, be it linocut or drypoint. Once the drawing is done, she scans it, prints it, and transfers the image to her carving surface using acrylic medium. Once the design is carved, she pulls the prints manually with her bamboo baren and bone folder, or her Portable Printing Press.

Cats, plants, and nature are Isabelle’s main sources of inspiration. As a “huge fan” of Japanese woodblock prints and Art Nouveau motifs, these influences also often feed into her work. Isabelle states; “I really enjoy experimenting with materials and formats, such as combining linocuts and kirigami pop-up structures, or printing with glow-in-the-dark acrylics”. Today, her printmaking practice is for now quite separate from her general illustration practice, and she hopes to bridge that gap by bringing in more narrative aspects into her print designs.

@echo.printmaker

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