Printmaking

Close look at Linolium cut relief printmaking

“The Hub” by Daniel Smith

2007

“Survivor” by Elizabeth Catlett

1983

“Scr-Emo” by Jesse Mack

2007

"Council of Solace“by Dan RAKGOATHE

1973

“Le Peintre à la Palette” by PABLO PICASSO,

1963

How Linocuts are MadeEvery linocut starts here - with a blank piece of linoleum and a pencil. With any type of original print, the artist creates a matrix - a printing element - which takes ink and transfers it to paper. The resulting print is the original artwork - the matrix is simply the vehicle with which the artwork is made. This sequence of photos demonstrates the creating of the matrix - the carved linoleum - and the printing of the artwork.

When I'm drawing on the block, I'm concentrating on the composition or placement of the elements in the design, and the proportions or skeletal structure of the objects in the image. Many of the ultimate decisions for how the image will appear are saved for when I'm cutting the block.

I've started to cut the block, using two gouges - a fine pointed V for sharp little lines, and a wider scoop to remove larger areas. Cutting a block is definitely a one-way street - once it's cut, it's gone! You've got to be pretty confident about what you want.

It's a unique way to make an image, in that your visual vocabulary is limited to strictly black and white - none of the greys that can be achieved with a pencil are possible. I mentioned above that many of the crucial decisions about the image are made while cutting the block - maybe here you can see why. Without a range of values, the direction of your cuts, their distance from one another, and the width of the lines becomes extremely important. I enjoy the challenge of working quite small, as it magnifies and celebrates the inherent difficulties of this form of image-making.

Once the block is cut, you're ready to print. A template is made, to guide the placement of paper and block on the press, and thick archival printmaking paper is torn (torn, not cut!) to size for the finished artwork.

A slab of ink is rolled onto a glass slab, and the ink is then rolled onto the block. One of the many variables in printing is the amount of ink that is applied to the block - too much or too little will both result in ruined prints.