Hi all! :)

Today I want to share with you a linocut print I made a few weeks back. This one is called ''Waterspirit''.

''Waterspirit'', hand printed With a barren on Japanese paper.

These past few days I have been sharing some slightly different and more advanced printing techniques with you, well, good news! This one is pretty simple!

This Waterspirit was made using a standard linocut method which I will share with you in a second.

If you want to attempt linocut yourself these are the tools you will need;

• Linoleum. Iuse a slightly harder grey linoleum which you can get at most art stores, but these days you also have something called softcut. It is what it sounds like, a softer version of linoleum. Personally I prefer the standard cause its easier to carve finer details in harder linoleum.

• Carving Tools. I use a Pfeil L 12/1 with a V- blade for my finest details and all my other carving tools are from your standard sets that you get in an art store. Just make sure to get some with V-blades and some with U-blades.

• Paper. If you print by hand like me, I would recommend a thinner paper like Mulberry paper or Japanese paper. That will transfer the image beautifully. If you have a press handy then a thiker paper like Velin Johannot of Fabriano are good options.

• A barren. A barren is what you use to rub over your paper to transfer your image if you are prnting by hand.

• Ink. I prefer waterbased inks as they are easier to clean and non toxic. Brand that are good are Essdee, Carbonelle, speedball.

• Rollers. Investing in a good roller will get you far. Try getting one with a thin layer of medium hard rubber. It will apply the ink beautifully to your plate.

• Glass plate. A glas splate is for rolling out your ink yo make it ready to apply on your plate.

So are you ready? :)

This is how I made my plate;

The first thing I did was paint my linoleum with some white acrylic paint. Now this you really don't need to do, I just like to to see the results of my carving better. After the paint was dry I drew on my image using a waterproof pen.

Remember that when your image prints it will be mirrored.

In the image above you can see I have started to carve out the image. Im the begnning I am using my thinnest blade to og around the bigger shapes and finer details. I am also using a black pen to color over the carved area to give me more contrast between carved and non-carved areas.

Here the plate is finished and ready to get some ink on it! For this Block I knew I wanted to make it with blue colors!

I decided to make a degradee from slightly lighter to darker blue. This is easy done by putting the two colors next to eash other on your glass plate and roll them vertecally up and down together!

After you are done rolling your ink and you get that smacking sound with your roller on the glas plate you can roll the ink on your plate. Make sure the layer is thin and even.

Then place your paper ontop of your print using a premade register to make sure all your prints end up where you want them on the paper. The final step is to use your barren, ( a spoon can also do the job), or press to transfer that print onto your paper.

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And you are done! :)

What do you think?
Have you tried linocut printing before?
It's great fun, inexpencive and the fact that you don't need a press makes it possible to do it whenever, wherever! :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful and creative day people!

<3