Getting Creative with Linocuts

by Andria Prime (5 images)

I work in variety of materials, from oil and acrylic paints, inks, pencils and charcoals, to soft and oil pastels. But for some reason the onset of autumn starts me twitching with ideas for Linocuts. And by the time winter arrives, the frosty days and dark evenings give time for design and planning, carving and print runs. As for many of us, my first taste of lino printing was at school. I rediscovered it when I came across a basic lino kit about eight years ago. And that was it - hooked by the joyful surprise of the pull of the first print. I enjoy the whole process. And it’s a great workout for the brain as the piece needs to be planned from start to finish, especially if printing in multiple colours. As the lino block prints in reverse, that’s another twist for the brain to work through. ‘Queue’s Forming’ is a good example to share with you.

Design - Time to get creative

The inspiration came from my friends who had befriended a fox. Over recent years, the fox had visited each evening for supper, sometimes accompanied by a cub. And the local rooks gathered too, hoping a clean up job would be needed. This story captured my imagination, so I played around with some sketches. When I settled on a design I made a final coloured drawing to work from.

Planning - Puzzle time

Firstly, once printed, whatever image is carved into the lino block, will be in reverse. So if I’m fixed on the design printing exactly as I’m looking at it on my paper, then I need to trace the drawing so I can flip it to retrace it in reverse onto the lino, ready for carving. I decided on a multi-block approach, where each colour would have its own lino block. Four blocks needed preparing, and the relevant parts of the drawing traced onto each. I also decided the print order for each colour.

Care was needed to ensure each block was the same size and each tracing was accurately aligned, so that when it came to printing, the colours and lines would fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Carving - Time for tools … tea and some mindfulness

At last to the carving part - it’s something I enjoy settling into. Working with the tools to carve the marks that will bring the design to life. It’s a process that requires presence, concentration and care, not least because the tools are kept necessarily sharp.

Printing - Time for the image to come to life

I never tire of the reveal - the surprise when pulling a print. You don’t know what the image will really look like until it’s printed. As each is burnished by hand, there can be small variations that help to make each print unique. Firstly I test printed each block onto newsprint. This way the alignment of each layer could be checked and adjustments made if needed. I could also test the combination of the colour mixes I would use. Once I’d got everything just so, I got to work on the final print run.

I use oil based inks. Depending on how many colours I’m using, it can take several days to a few weeks to complete prints as it can take time for the inks to dry between each layer. As it happens, I liked two different test versions so for this piece and so I ended up with a variable edition print run, some prints incorporating the blue of the twilight sky and some without. Once dry it was time to edition number, title and sign each print