Cutting the lino went quite well. I had bought a bench hook recently and painted it to protect the wood from staining. But while the paint was drying, I used a non-slip mat under the lino instead, which worked extremely well and permitted to move around the plate quite easily.

I proofed the plate using a very soft graphite stick on rice paper (rough side). I was aware that some of the marks were probably too fine for linoprint, but decided to leave them as they were because I was curious how they would print.

I took a somewhat systematic approach to mark making, creating a sequence of different marks with each of my tools consecutively, and then began to experiment with combinations of tools, other implements and more unusual ways to make marks.

Five test prints

The first test print was made using hand pressure. After trying baren and felt instrument, I switched to a metal spoon to rub the paper. Still, the impression turned out somewhat irregular. The remaining four prints were made using the printing press. Comparing the quality of the impression, the hand print is weaker but the slight irregularities are interesting. The printing press by contrast results in more even prints with darker colours, and requires much less physical effort to achieve this. I guess it depends on the intended effect which of the two techniques works better.

The first two prints were made with black Akua Intaglio ink, then I swiched to Speedball watersoluble relief inks, mixing red and blue to obtain dark purple. This ink is softer, less stiff and tacky, and dries faster. I used the smooth side of A3 white sulphite paper for these prints.

Tools and techniques:

First row, starting from the right: The V-tool
6) straight long lines, 5) wavy lines, 4) short linear marks
Second to fourth row: Same sequence using the small, medium and large gauge tool

3rd column from the left, downwards: using the straight blade

• Many straight cuts in all directions: creates a tonal area
• Using the small gauge to create border lines for clean edges of the marks in between
• Combination of straight blade and small gauge tool: simple lines and digging out
• Screwing in the staight blade to make irregular dot marks

2nd column from the left, downwards: experimenting with tools

• Using scissors to cut into the lino
• Scratching marks with a palette knife
• Marks from a screw pulled and pushed over the surface
• Sharp pottery tool

1st column from the left, downwards: more experiments

• Straight blade, digging out triangular shapes
• Flat gauge tool, small marks
• Flat gauge, longer stripes
• Flat gauge, irregular marks

From the third print on, the finer marks increasingly filled with ink and therefore the scratches made with the straight blade were less and less visible. I think this kind of marks works well to avoid “plain black fields” and create interest in larger dark areas while still maintaining the dark tone.

I find it hard to see particular subjects I could depict using marks from this test linocut, but do appreciate how each of the squares has a particular feel and pattern to it. I guess when designing a linocut block it’s important to observe well the visual patterns of the subject and then find an appropriate tool and approach to represent them.

One idea to take this mark making exercise further might be to use a landscape view as a starting point and translate areas of different patterns into textured linocut squares. But then again, why not directly create a linocut of the landscape. Nevertheless, it might be a good idea to have a tryout linocut plate when exploring the textures of a subject, before committing to the actual linocut.