Lino Printing - The First Lino Print (Part 2)

A Quick Update - After the looking over my prints when they had dried I decided that I needed to do something about the white background. As I mentioned in some earlier posts I felt the background looked very bare. It was too late to change the background as the lino block had already been cut. So I decided to purchase some black paper and to do some more first prints. I'm not sure if applying paint again and doing more prints will degrade the lino block but I decided to give it a go.

Here is a picture of the lino block and the first print on black paper -



I did a few more prints on the black paper which I think they have worked out pretty well. It look much better than the black background.



Now I'm thinking that maybe I should have experimented with a few more colors instead of yellow!

Lino Printing - The First Lino Print

I've already spotted some mistakes that I've made or maybe not mistakes but at least things that I would do differently next time. I think I should have done some sort of design for the background instead of leaving it blank.
The first print will be in yellow. I got a sheet of glass to roll the paint on. Basically I put a bit of paint on the sheet of glass and rolled it until it was spread evenly on the glass and roller.

Once I had an even spread of paint on the roller I rolled it onto the lino block. I placed the block on some old newspaper as I figured things could get a bit messy. I rolled the paint onto the block and covered it evenly. In this picture you can see what the block looked like once it had been rolled.


A this point I gently placed a large sheet of white paper over the lino block. The first time I did this I didn't like up the edges of the paper with the edges of the lino block, this meant I wouldn't be able to do a second print on top of it as I'd have no way of knowing where to place the paper. I didn't have a baren (the tool used to press the paper) so I had to improvise. I decided to use a rolling pin. The following picture isn't very descriptive but you get the general idea. I rolled over the paper with the rolling pin. The rolling pin is quite large so it gave an even spread and covered all of the lino block.


I rolled over it a few times putting some weight on the roller. At this point I was ready to remove the paper from the lino block. I took a sequence of pictures as I peeled the paper back from the lino block.

Almost there...

Here's the print -

So I continued this process doing lots of prints. I think I finished up with about 12 prints.


I do not think the prints look very well on the white paper, maybe this is because of all the white space that I left. I'm considering printing the lino block again on some different colour paper. That's all for now!

Lino Cutting - Getting Started

I've spent some time trying to decide what to do for my first print. Here is a sketch of a giraffe that I did some time ago.


The giraffe was my first choice for the lino print. I couldn't decide on what colours to use for the giraffe print. So I changed my mind and decided to do the Manchester United crest. A quick search on Google images for Manchester united crest gives a nice selection of images to base my sketch on.

While the crest is a bit more complicated the colour choice is simple. After sketching out the crest on an A4 sheet of paper and I went over it with a fine permanent maker.


At this point I got some tracing paper and copied the crest. I didn't feel confident about sketching the crest on the lino, as it took me ages to get the crest looking right on paper. The idea behind the permanent marker outline was to make it easier to trace.

At this point I was ready to get started. I looked on-line for the lino cutting tools and for lino blocks. As expected the prices online are much better than my local arts and crafts shop... but I was lazy and decided I wanted them now so I purchased in my local shop.

I got an A4 lino block for €6.99 and a set of lino cutting tools for €4.99. I borrowed a roller and some printing paint from a friend. (They've never done lino printing before!)

So using the image on the tracing paper I set about getting a mirror of this image onto the lino block. I experimented with the tracing paper and the lino block but I found it difficult to see the pencil mark on the lino block. So I decided to cover the back of the tracing paper with white chalk, hoping it would show up better on the lino block. I taped the tracing paper to the lino block with masking tape.

I went around the outline of the crest with pencil. I only did the outline of the image as I figure there was no point in doing the detail at this point. (Looking back on it now I don't think there would have been a problem doing it all). Once I had completed the outline I removed the tracing paper.

At this point I realised that I had made a mistake with the chalk. It was more of a hindrance than a help. Once the chalk was wiped away I could see the outline of the crest so I went over it with a fine permanent marker.


My plan was to do the first print in yellow, then a second print in red and the final print in black. I warmed the lino block up slightly as I read that it is easier to work if it is warm. I started carving away the outside of the crest. This was a fairly slow process as I did not want to mess up the lino block. I did not have a lino cutting board (like the one used in the Lino Print - Tutorial ) so I had to be very careful cutting.

I continued cutting the lino board. There were a couple of parts especially around the edges that I need to cut a few times to get clear, clean edges. I think I may have some difficulty when I get into the detail of the crest due to the size of some of the cutting required.

And finally...

Lino Cutting - First Post

Its been 10 years since I did lino printing at school. I've decided to give it a go now. I found a few websites that describe the process. I expected there would be more information and tutorials available on the Internet but this does not appear to be the case. Here are the best sites that I found:

Link Print - Tutorial
This tutorial gives a good introduction to lino printing using one colour.

Moongold Visuals - Lino Cutting
This site details the tools needed and the steps involved but in allot more detail.

After reading these two sites I decided I'd start a blog to record my attempts at lino printing.