I postponed the decision and completed several research tasks. Each of them gave more nurture to the idea of getting back to my topic, developing it further towards the direction that I had identified in my research: Clean up the motif and make it less fussy in the foreground. I was quite sure that this was the way to go, but I was wary to have another go through the somewhat laborious process of making the design and then consecutive transfer and cutting of three separate linoplates. The problem was that I get bored when I repeat myself. So I had the idea of doing things differently.

I started by making another A4 drawing from my photo. I think the drawing is better as the original one and the inclusion of coloured pencils works nicely. But the problem with the drawing is that it is essentially the same approach as the first version which I used for the original linocutting.

Using this drawing, I might produce an improved version of the first print with better alignment and maybe somewhat cleaner shapes, but it would essentially be a repetition and that was not what I wanted.

The next day, I made a second drawing about half the size to see whether changing the scale would help me to develop a different approach. I produced another nice drawing, but I don’t think the resulting print would be essentially different from the original version. I then produced a pencil sketch of the scene from memory, hoping that this might help to reduce clutter. But somehow, none of my attempts convinced me and I felt quite disheartened.

Trying to understand why I felt so stuck with my subject, I remembered the phrase of “pushing one’s limits”. I think with this subject I’m at a point where I would have to push the limits, but I’m essentially clueless how to do this. It may sound obvious but I had to realize that if I did not change the approach, the result would not be different. Only I had no idea in which direction to go from here.

I guess the experience is quite important because it’s exactly the moment where creativity and experimentation come into play, where I should be leaving the “comfort zone” and try out something new. I feel it’s important but I also feel I’m not in the state of doing it now. I’ll try to keep it in the back of my mind and get back to the subject.

I could be addressing one of the most important things for my development as an artist.

Nevertheless I want to explore sculpture, so I decided to do it on my own, as time permits, to supplement my OCA studies. I’ve already learnt quite a lot how to approach an art topic that’s interesting, and I intend to loosely follow this one “the OCA way” by writing a blog, doing research on suggested artists, and using project prompts to develop a personal practice as well. I researched academic course syllabi online and found interesting project prompts which I’m going to use to get me started.

The first project I chose is to make a paper sculpture. The project was designed for beginners to sculpture and the only requirements are a minimum size (16 x 16 x 16 inches, which is about 40 cubic centimeters) and that the sculpture should have an interior and an exterior. The task was designed to get students working in 3-dimensions, and it was presented with some paper sculptures from various artists as inspirations.

Now one of these artist was Andreas Kocks (German, contemporary). I chose him for a closer look because I was quite impressed by the sculptures. The first images I saw were those of sculptures that resembled huge-sized splashes of black ink, cut out and mounted to form a three dimensional landscape on the wall. Similar sculptures were made as cut out shapes that were bent inwards or outwards, so they’d create shadows or highlights on the sculpture’s surface.

Now there’s no immediate connection between sculpture and printmaking in general or between these sculptures and the linocut printmaking technique specifically. But while looking at the sculptures, I did search for a connection or a way to translate the idea from sculpture into printmaking.

Monoprinting came to mind: If ink was splashed onto a printing plate and a print pulled from the surface, this would create a “splash print”, shaped by a chance effects in the same way as the original splash of the ink on the plate. By contrast, I could splash some ink on a linoplate and then cut around the splash shapes for a relief print. This print would have a completely different effect, probably a bit like “frozen water” and similar to water depictions in the linocuts by Ian Phillips.

It’s an interesting idea. I might take it up some time in the future.

Resources

Andreas Kocks, Paper sculptures http://pennstatesculpture.blogspot.com/2012/08/andreas-kocks-paper-project.html

Andreas Kocks artist website http://www.andreaskocks.com/index.html

The linocuts of Ian Phillips show similar qualities to what I liked in Anne Lewis’ linocuts. There’s a graphical cleanliness to them which I admire and that I’d like to achieve in my own works as well.

The dog on a carpet has a lovely fur texture, where brown shades look through the black overprint. Another lovely detail is the white on the paw and the light fur in the neck, where the paper comes through. The landscape to the right I like the tonal gradations within the turquoise/blue/black colour. Both prints open the standard image rectangle to an outline influence by the subject’s forms, which is a great compositional element that I’d like to try out in my own work as well.

These two depictions of water use a different technique which effectively conveys the character of the surface. The left shows the breaking up of waves at the shore, the right shows a quietly moving surface with its reflections. I wonder how the clean linework was achieved in the right print because I’m finding it very difficult to cut fine relief lines into linoleum.

Another interesting detail is the printmaker’s sign which also appears in the next two prints. It’s really a nice detail and I can imagine to develop something similar for my prints as well.

The waterfall print shows another different water subject, “moving water” this time. The depiction of water came up in my watercolour module and I really like how Ian Phillips treats this subjects and conveys the essence of the particular situation. I also like the texture and shapes of the bushes behind the large rocks. The dark purple colour in the linework that creates these bushes returns in the rocks and the darker background trees, and I think this is an important factor contributing to the coherence of the elements in the composition.

The last print I selected for a close look was shown in the section ‘studies’. I really wondered about the distinction between ‘studies’ and proper prints, and the place these studies have in the linocut reduction process. By the time there’s so much carved away that only the black elements of the ducks remain, a new plate must be started if a complete print is to be developed. But I love the lightness, transparency and unfinished, casual style of this linocut.

What can I learn from these prints?

After looking for an hour or so at all the prints presented on Ian Phillips’ website, I had a brief feeling of saturation, as if the prints, despite their admirable technique and execution, became somewhat predictable and less exciting. I checked back to my own multi-block print to compare whether there was the same feeling (after having looked so often at them before), but no. With some days distance and a fresh eye, I found that my messy technique had added something mysterious to the print that made them less immediate to grasp. They are not as clean and precise and maybe that’s what keeps me interested when looking at them. But it may also be a personal thing, simply because it was me who made them.

I’m more than aware how much I can learn by studying other artists’ prints and there are many aspects I adore in the prints by Ian Phillips. In addition to this, his website is extremely well structured and easy to navigate. He presents a tutorial on reduction linocut which contains helpful tips for the process. For example, he uses photoshop to enlarge his original drawings to the final print size, and creates the final drawing based on a printout of the enlarged version.

Another good tip was to use China Markers to transfer the drawing onto the linoleum plate. China Markers are wax-based pens that draw well on smooth surfaces like glass or porcelain, but they can also be used on paper, as underdrawings in watercolours (water-repellent), or for details in oil pastel drawings. Now for image transfer, Ian Phillips traces the right side of his drawing with the marker, then reverses the paper and re-traces the backside, which transfers the pigment from the underside drawing onto the linoleum. This sounds interesting and it might help me to get over the irritation from a variety of different marks on the lino. China markers are available in different colours so I could also try to differentiate between the colours I’m going to use for a print.

Other ideas for my own work

– Ink a plate with two or more colours to achieve a gradation, or ink the plate only partially. I think this technique was used for the ‘Honeybourne Evening’ print with the blue-gray colour on the hill area. This looks as if the ink had been applied fully in the uper half of the plate and was faded out in the lower half, so that more of the red colour comes through in the foreground

– It might also be interesting to combine multiblock printing with the reduction method, for example using two plates in a sequence of different colours and different elements of the subject printed interchangingly. That’s certainly too complicated for me now, but might be interesting to experiment with in the future.

– again the breaking up of plain rectangle image boundaries. I like it a lot how Ian Phillips has applied this in the ‘Howl’ and ‘Honeybourne Evening’ prints. There are more landscape prints where he uses the technique and it looks really interesting.

Resources

Artist website http://www.reliefprint.co.uk/index.html

Edward Bawden, English (1903 – 1989)

The Floral Hall, Covent Garden (1967)

This is a print with many intricate details and fine lines. I wouldn’t have tried to do something like this with linoleum because I wouldn’t be able to cut out these lines with such accuracy. I think it’s a very interesting composition and unusual, subtle choice of colour.

Zoom image at http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/prints-multiples/edward-bawden-the-floral-hall-covent-garden-5588069-details.aspx

Smithfield  (Meat Market) (1967) Lithograph, originated from a Linocut

“This print of Smithfield Meat Market was one of a series of six prints of London markets commissioned by Curwen Prints. The others were Billingsgate, Borough, Covent Garden (2) and Leadenhall. The prints were originated as linocuts which were then made into lithograph plates by Stanley Jones. The main edition was of seventy-five copies of each. In preparing material for the series, Bawden would travel down to London from Great Bardfield very early in the morning with the local butcher. Bawden’s long-term interest in the structural detail of large-span working buildings, evident in his depictions of railway station and other structures, is also expressed in these prints, juxtaposed against the human activity and the market produce.” [The Fry Art Gallery]

This print is actually a lithograph, not a linocut, which I realized only later. I think the black was not the best choice on top of the other paler colours, because it stands out too heavily and does not integrate well with the other image elements. A dark gray would probably have worked better.

For the use of colour, I see a similar method in treating figure, line and background as what I noticed in the linoprints by Anne Lewis in an earlier post (LINK). A particular colour sometimes is a line, sometimes is it used as a shape, and sometimes it’s the background to something else (negative space). These principles are used in the roof structure but also in the center for the people in the scene. The print is undated, but I’d locate it close to the tradition of German expressionism with its bold style.

Braintree Station (1960)

Another linocut with a mind-boggling amount of finely cut detail. The composition uses a central perspective which resembles ‘naive paintings’.

Road to Thaxted (1956)

This is the earliest print from those I selected, and looks like the least controlled composition in a positive way. The treatment of lines and shapes is somewhat looser than in the later compositions of architectural structures. Interesting is that there are several misalignments, maybe deliberate, which work extremely well, for example the blue of the man on the bicycle or the white in the flowers to the lower right. Also interesting the use of texture to create tonal values, for example under the bench with the milk bowls. This reminds me of the techniques used in etching.

Resources

Overview of works by Edward Bawden at the Fry Art Gallery website:  http://www.fryartgallery.org/the-collection/search-viewer/580/artist/6/Edward-Bawden-CBE-RA

Richard Bawden, English (born 1936)

Many subjects around the house: cats, interior views. I chose among the few outside views to make a comparison to prints by father Edward. But there were so few that I included other subjects as well. Unfortunately, I found no dates for the prints by Richard Bawden. Also, the reproduction images were in low resolution which makes it difficult to study technical details and learn from them.

Wivenhoe Waterfront, Linocut

From what I can see, a print with an enormous amount of eactly cut detail: The stone walls and houses with all the tiny brick linework, the planks of the boats, the texture on the water. All the linework for the boat’s sails. I could never do this and I wouldn’t want to in a relief technique, I think. I’m also surprised by the number of different colours in this print and wonder whether there was a separate plate for each colour or whether selective inking was used as well.

Seargent Pepper and Symphonic Rock Royal Albert Hall (White)

Another print with a huge amount of finely cut detail and geometrical patterns. The treatment of the blue light rays across the entire scene is interesting

Saltglaze Jugs, Linocut: I like this print for its subject

Daffodils, Linocut:

A print that has very few dark elements, which I find unusual for linocuts. The main element is the colourful striped tablecloth. The vase of flowers casts a shadow on the table surface which is nicely indicated by a light gray layer which mutes the underlying colours.

Resources

Selected Artworks at Bircham Gallery http://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Richard:Bawden/
Selected prints at Art Angels Gallery: http://www.art-angels.co.uk/cat/richard-bawden
Linda Richardson presenting selected linocuts by Richard Bawden: http://www.lindarichardson.co.uk/index.php/a-z-artists/richard-bawden/linocuts

Concluding remarks

All in all, the prints by these two printmakers are “not my cup of tea”. While I do like them for the images and compositions, it’s not the style of printmaking I’m aiming for. The question ‘what can you learn from them’ is therefore difficult to answer. Things to take away might rather be in the vein of how to do things differently – I’d try to avoid making prints with such intricate, lace-like textures and instead would aim for a more generous  and reductive style.

I’m still undecided whether to have another go at the seaside view, but having done more research confirmed the suspicions I had regarding the need for more clarity in my designs. It may have been this issue that led me to select Anne Lewis and Peter Catherall for a closer look. Both artists specialize on linocut and their style is clean and graphical. I think this is the direction towards which I’d like to develop in future linocut work.

Anne Lewis, Wales (born 1962)

These linocuts were made using the reduction method, where a single plate is used and consecutively cut away over a series of impressions from lighter to darker colours. Anne Lewis explains the process nicely on her blog. I guess the method requires lots and lots of practice to develop the necessary feel for the right colours and how to cut. Lewis has a background in illustration. I guess it’s this kind of training that helps to “clean up” a drawing and make it a good source for a coloured linocut.

I’m just so impressed by the quality of her work – the wide view of her landscape compositions, with the paper white providing accentuated highlights. The prints show very effective colour contrasts.

There’s a particular Photoshop software filter, I think it’s called ‘Colour separation’, which does approximately what is needed to go from a complex real view to a simplified abstraction that will work as a multicolour linocut. I might experiment with that on my source photos to see how it looks like. It’s a bit of a two-sided coin though because I don’t want to reduce linocutting to a mere execution of a digitally prepared image. I think there’s more to a good linocut than just applying a technical procedure.

For now the one thing I know that this is the style I had vaguely in mind when talking about cleaning up my multiblock print of the seaside view: Simplify the shapes, try to obtain clarity and clean up fussy textures.

Storm approaching, Birling Gap (2014), 7 colour linocut, Edition of 20, 30cm x 20cm
Late September, Tenby Harbour (2013), 13 colour linocut, Edition of 20, 41.5cm x 29.5cm
Capel Carmel, Conwy (undated), 5 colour linocut (3 blocks), Edition of 20, 17.5 x 18cm
Towards Trearddur from Porth y Corwgl (2013), 12 colour linocut, Edition of 15, 29 x 15cm

Anne Lewis focuses on landscape, but there are also other subjects like animals and plants. I’m including two examples which I found particularly interesting. The ‘White Hellebore’ is very interesting because of the shapes that go outside of the image square, this adds to the livelyness of the print. It is such an accomplished work, I’m struck by the beauty… There is so much variety in the use of colour and line. For example, the black acts in multiple ways

– there are black lines on white or coloured grounds
– there are black shapes into which lines are carved and the colour shows through
– there are areas where the black is just a background, not a particular shape (negative space)

The narcissi, by contrast, are somewhat more difficult to read, and I think it is because not enough dark contrast was used to separate the flower from its background. It’s nevertheless a beautiful print and I found it very interesting to see a preparatory sketch as well.

White hellebore (undated), 3 colour linocut, Edition of 16, 13cm x 15cm (to petal and leaf tips)
Narcissi (undated), 5 colour linocut, Edition of 16, 28 x 8cm

Anne Lewis Artist website http://www.annlewis.co.uk
Anne Lewis at Martin Tinney Gallery http://www.artwales.com/artists-detail-mtg-en.php?artistID=71
Reference article by Nick Morley http://linocutboy.com/ann-lewis-linocut-artist/

Paul Catherall, England (born 1967)

Paul Catherall is a London based artist. City structures are a major subject in his prints. I wouldn’t have believed his prints were linocuts, I’d rather have thought their were screenprints. The style is even more extreme in its clarity and graphic approach. The artist stated

“It’s about a “quality that’s fairly abstract, where elements are missing and your eye does your work for you”, he says. “I’m exploring what to leave out rather than what to leave in, and getting the negative shapes to do the work.” [from an article at Creative Review website]

I think this is at the heart of what attracted me to these works. The abstract quality and the reduction to essential shapes is just stunning.

The architectural views of London are already great, but I was off my feet to see the prints of New York. Left: Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge. Right: The prints of high rises and other structures represent so much of what I see every day.

I’m quite sure that these works are based on photographs, because there are extreme perspective distortions which are typical for standard (zoom) lens cameras. By contrast, when drawing from a real view, the human eye and brain together automatically correct these distortions. It is of course possible that Catherall used a viewfinder for drawing which artificially imposes a little square on the scene and might stop the brain from “pulling the verticals straight”.

What I find most impressive and would like to adopt from these prints is the treatment of shadows to indicate the shape of the actual object.

Artist website (Flash animation) http://www.paulcatherall.com
2012 Linocut Exhibition http://www.designweek.co.uk/whats-on/paul-catherall-2012-linocuts/3034880.article
Selected works overview http://www.art-angels.co.uk/cat/paul-catherall
Paul Catherall Artist Details at the London Transport Museum http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Paul+Catherall
Reference article by Nick Morley http://linocutboy.com/paul-catherall-linocuts-of-london/
Creative Review Exhibition Article: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/april/paul-catherall
Graphicine Article (large image reproductions) http://www.graphicine.com/?p=667

The visit to the CCP was a super nice experience. I received a very friendly welcome and was led around the exhibition and the printmaking studios by Paul DeRuvo, Printmaker at the center. Paul also let me watch him make a chine collé print for another artist’s edition, and showed me some of his own prints. Upstairs I met some artists who were working on their prints, discussing ideas among them. I just got a taste for what I’m missing heavily in my everyday life, where I’m working full-time in a totally unrelated IT job and pursue printmaking alone at home, guided via distance education.

The exhibition itself presented prints by Clare Romano and John Ross spanning their entire artist lives. There were many woodcuts and collagraphs and I spent quite some time looking at each from close and making notes in my sketchbook. I admired textures and other details that one cannot see when looking at prints online or as reproductions in books. I also took some photos of prints I found particularly interesting. It was a very inspiring day.

Prints from the exhibition

Unfortunately the prints were framed behind glass and the studio lights created lots of reflections, so I had to photograph at an angle and the image quality is mediocre. The pictures just serve as a reminder.

    
Clare Romano, Dalmatia (1969), Collagraph: I was interested in the heavily textured effects in this print. I imagined it might have been made using a heavy body paint laid out on a plate and then textured with a spatula. The print was probably made in layers: First the basic colours of red, brown and blue and then a black print from a textured plate with ink wiped off the surfaces so that it would remain only in the ridges. I don’t have enough background knowledge on collagraphs but it’s something I’d like to explore.

Clare Romano, Into the clefts (1960), Woodcut: This resonated with me because it reminded me of the topic ‘New York’, the big city that can get so overwhelming. While doing some preparative research for the visit, I had seen woodcuts of New York by Clare Romano and John Ross that had been made for a book about Manhattan Island. They were in a 1950-60s style and I had hoped to see some of the originals for that book in the exhibition. There weren’t any, but I was sensitized to the subject. What I like in this woodcut is the composition (left photo): When you walk through the streets of Manhattan, you can see a tiny bit of sky above high buildings and maybe a small vertical stripe between two high rises when you follow the street up to the horizon. It looks like an evening scene with neon lighting that becomes blurred as you move through the streets taking a cab or the bus (right photo, detail from center).

I started with the ‘New York’ subject in Part 1, making textured monotypes and experimental prints using masks, and think I will get back to this subject again.

     Clare Romano, East Side Structures (1952), Lithograph
Clare Romano, Along the Arno (1959), Woodcut

The lithograph was very similar to those I remembered from the Manhattan book: The colour choice of beige, brown and grey tones and the geometrical elements in the composition. The image is dominated by flat areas of colour and I guess this has to do with the litho technique. Within the colours there’s a subtle surface texture which I think results from the surface of the litho stone – and which works extremely well to convey the feel of the concrete buildings in that street view. Lithography apparently permits printing linear elements as well, which would be a pain to do with lino, never resulting in similarly clean surroundings. The overall effect with lino would be quite different, even if the same composition was used.

I love the woodcut print for its warm colours and the bold composition. Like the lithograph, this print is based on shape, not on texture. Interesting texture effects on the surfaces arise from light colours that were printed over darker colours. I just wonder whether the black lines were the result of a huge wooden plate where everything except the linear elements was cut away. I think I’d approach this differently and use a combination of woodcut relief with an intaglio method for the lines.

John Ross, Night Refinery (1964), Etching
John Ross, Harbor (1969), Etching

It is interesting to compare these etchings by John Ross with Clare Romano’s prints of built structures and see how the technique has an influence on the outcome. Although similar in colours, the overall impression of the etchings is very different from the woodcut and the lithograph. The Night Refinery etching seems to have been done on top of a brown coloured print on cream white paper. The white of the paper comes through in the round shapes which look like light bulbs in a nightly scene. There’s much greater emphasis on texture and line here, compared to lithograph and woodcut.

The Harbor etching is even more complicated. It might have been done in a single go from a plate that had etched lines and was then selectively inked with several different colours and only partially wiped clean. Similar effects might be obtained with a subtractive monotype technique, combined with backdrawing. I really like the subtlety of the colour effects here.

Canyons

Another subject that had been explored by both artists were landscape views of canyons. The four I selected were all collagraphs, using different materials for texturing the surfaces.

John Ross, Talus (1984), Collagraph
John Ross, Peak (1984), Collagraph
Clare Romano, Red Canyon (1983), Collagraph
Clare Romano, Silver Canyon (1984), Collagraph

Talus by John Ross and Red Canyon by Clare Romano used fabric to create texture, which can be seen from close. The other two collagraph plates were created differently, maybe some kind of gel or mass that could be manipulated with instruments. The Red Canyon seems to combine fabric and textured gel mass, whereas Talus builds on fabric alone.

In the meantime, I have completed my multiblock linoprint which features a landscape view with stones. It’s interesting to see how collagraph can be used to texture stone surfaces. It might be interesting to follow this up later, maybe combining the two techniques: Linocut for the definitions, collagraph for interesting textures. Not sure though whether linocut is at all compatible with a more impressionistic treatment of surfaces.

I have no idea how the multiple colours were printed. I remember that Paul DeRuvo mentioned the complexity of the process of inking these plates when he showed me around through the exhibition. Maybe a combination of selective inking with different colours and selective wiping plus several printed layers on top? I treated myself the printmaking book and also a book on collagraph, maybe I’ll be able to understand the process later on.

Resources

John Ross artist website: http://www.johnrossprintmaker.com/index.html
Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT: http://contemprints.org/
Paul DeRuvo artist website: http://paulderuvo.com

After the exhibition, I went to the seaside to draw. I was fascinated by the view over the sea and the width of perspective, and tried to capture this in a sketch. Unfortunately it was so cold that I could barely complete that one single sketch before my fingers were dead frozen. So I changed plans and took photos instead, selecting views I’d have drawn if it wouldn’t have been that cold.

Back home, I looked through the photos to find one I could use as my source for working out a print. I had made many pictures and to help me select, I went back to my memories of the site and searched for the view that had impressed me most. It was this view of huge rocks in front of me, the moving grass, and the more distant outlook over the water. I then chose the photo that came closest, which was a portrait format.

Prep work

I started with a drawing of the scene to study the composition, shapes and textures, then made a quick watercolour sketch to try out the colours.

I spent a lot of time thinking how I might prepare the multicolour interpretation of the subject and which colours to choose. After some reflection, I broke my subject down into three colours plus the white of the paper:

– I wanted to use the white of the paper for the sky, the light areas of the water and on the sand, as well as on the rocks.
– For the grass, I wanted a broken yellow, like light ochre.
– I wanted a pale blue for the water and the shades of the rocks, and also for the shadows within the grass.
– As my darkest tone, I wanted a dark gray, not black, to mark the dark areas between the stones, the lower area of the grass, and the dark shapes in the mid- and background.

Then I repeated the drawing of the scene to fit on an A4 linoplate. To transfer the drawing on the plate, I made a photocopy of my sketch on tracing paper. The transfer to the first plate was made using carbon paper. I cut out my first plate (for the yellow colour) and made a black print from it which served to transfer the image onto the second plate, for the blue colour.

Then things became complicated because I needed some texture in areas I’d already cut away, and consequently had no marks on the lino to guide my cutting. So I reused the transparent drawing to add more detail using the carbon copy method. This became very complex. Some black areas were to be cut away, other marks indicated spots to retain. I tried to resolve ambiguities looking at the photo which was reverse-sided compared to the print on the linoplate. I was quite confused by all the marks on the plate, but continued cutting to make another black print and transfer the result onto the third linoplate, for the dark gray colour.

Again I was missing important marks to guide my cutting of details, and adding guidelines from the transparent drawing just added to the confusion. At this point I decided to mirror horizontally my original photo so that at least I had something to draw from onto the plate and help me to add the missing information. The cut of this third plate was tested with a graphite rubbing proof. I made corrections in the textures and then did the third black reference print.   

Series 1: Schmincke inks

Then I printed a first coloured series of the subject. I used cream white, medium weight sulphite paper with a moderately smooth surface. I mixed my colours:

– yellow: light ochre plus a bit of sepia and red to warm up the colour
– blue: white and prussian blue in roughly equal amounts to obtain a pale blue
– dark gray: black with a tad of white

Schmincke inks are opaque and the result was not quite what I had imagined. Therefore I made only a few prints, just from the amount of ink I had pre-mixed.

upper: Yellow, blue, gray single colour prints
lower: Two colour and three colour prints

Series 2: Speedball inks

I switched to Speedball inks for a second try, hoping I’d get closer to the colours I had imagined. Before printing, I reworked the plates a bit: I smoothed out areas that weren’t cut well and I also moved the lower edge of the yellow area upwards by cutting a little more away.

Speedball inks are actually transparent, but I had a selection of process colours and intended to mix them to get closer to what I wanted. I changed the original lemon yellow by adding some magenta and a tad of blue to obtain a warm, slightly broken yellow, which retained its transparency. But the process blue was a pure cyan and much too intense for my liking. I added a tad of black to break it, some extender to dilute it, and white to obtain a lighter tone. Unfortunately, the white killed the transparency and the original cyan came out as an opaque, turqoise blue. My adding of white to the black ink had a similar effect of making the ink opaque grey.

The prints were made on the same paper as the first series. I made some five prints but still wasn’t satisfied with how the colours came out.

upper: Yellow, blue, gray single colour prints
lower: Two colour and three colour prints

Series 3: Akua inks

I had been reluctant to use Akua inks for relief printing because I knew from earlier experience that they take very long to dry when applied over larger areas. That was why I started out with other waterbased inks. But the results didn’t convince me and so I thought I’d give it a try with these inks. I loved their colours in the monoprinting experiments and knew they worked best on a smooth surface, so choose a different paper for the next series.

I took bright white medium weight drawing paper for this. I mixed plain yellow with burnt sienna and obtained a warm, orange yellow.

I mixed ultramarine blue with transparent base to increase transparency and obtain a lighter tone, and added black to break the intensity of the hue. Unfortunately, I added too much black and ended up having to re-mix just part of it with more blue, and quite an amount of unused ink was left aside. I made a few test prints before I arrived at a broken blue that was roughly what I had envisioned.

For my darkest tone, I mixed black with transparent base. I added no white this time and was satisfied with the transparency of the inks. The two colour print (yellow and blue) worked quite nicely as well.

Adding the darkest tone, I realized that I was using too much ink and over the course of several prints, managed to apply less and less ink which also helped to come closer to my idea of a pale blue tone for the water and the stones. I found the prints were improving, but was not satisfied with the alignment of the third plate. I found that the dark areas did not bring out very well the shapes of the stones.

Series 4: Akua inks, trying to improve

Akua inks are extremely economical. In particular when using smooth paper which doesn’t absorb much, a little bit of ink goes very far. From series 3, I had so much unused ink left over which wouldn’t dry before printed on some paper, that I decided to have another go at trying to improve on the alignment of my plates.

This time I chose a slightly lighter, bright white inkjet paper with a very smooth surface. From earlier prints I knew this paper brought out the colours very nicely.

Looking closely at the last prints from series 3, I found that there was considerable misalignment in the lower areas of the print. I thought that the yellow plate was the culprit and my analysis led me to think the print would work out better if I just printed the yellow plate 5 mm upwards. So I set out to make a series of 12 prints, all with the dislocated yellow. Printing the blue on top, I realized that I had been mistaken, because now I had misalignment between yellow and blue.

I realized that the problem seemed to have been the black plate, which was good in its upper area, but misaligned in the lower area. Actually the black shades should have been roughly 5mm downwards to exactly match the patterns in the yellow and blue plates. To correct this, I decided to cut away the blue plate to lower the horizon line, and to cut away 5mm from the lower edge of the black plate.

But somehow, my analyses were confounded by my attempts at correcting misalignment by moving the plates, and I ended up totally disoriented where to register my plates. Cutting away the black plate had been erroneous and created a 5mm misalignment at the lower edge of the print. I corrected this by softening out the lower edge, but the plate was spoiled and registration of the remaining prints became really complicated.

       
1) corrected black plate, resulting in misalignment on the bottom edge
2) moving the black plate upwards, creating misalignment at the horizon with the water line
3) smoothed out lower edge of the black plate and correct alignment at the horizon line

Concluding reflections

When I look at the prints from these four series in direct comparison, I think that overall, the prints made with Akua inks are closest to the colours I wanted. But I’m not sure whether the final print with the best alignment and its colours closest to the pale tones I had in mind works best as an image. Actually I prefer the stronger colours of the third print, despite the alignment errors.

But getting the colours right was only part of the challenge. I do like the prints, but am aware that there is ample room for improvement. Firstly, I think my interpretation of the subject was too complex and I created too much texture which makes it difficult to read the resulting image. In particular, the grass area lacks three-dimensionality and looks more like a thin fence than a field of grass. Also, the rocks in the foreground lack clarity of definition and I think they have too much texture on them.

Secondly, my working process was flawed in that the technique of transferring the image idea onto the three linoplates was full of ambiguities which I tried to resolve on the fly. Difficulties arose from from the different types of marks on the plates (print marks, carbon copy marks and additional pencil marks) and from working with the original photo source towards the mirrored linoplates.

It was also very annoying that the linoplates were not cut exactly to the same format, but differed from each other by +/- 5mm in any direction. This added to the registration difficulties I encountered.

I did try to correct for misalignments by reworking the plates during printing, but if I were to do it again, I’d rather develop a process that’s more reliable right from the start. While I think it is ok to rework a plate to correct for colour and texture effects, misalignment of compositional elements should not occur at that point.

I think my drawing was not the best starting point. It probably had too many ambiguities and unresolved shapes which then carried over into subsequent steps. I remember that I had tried to find a technique how I could develop a preparatory coloured drawing or painting to guide subsequent steps, but my ideas did not work out. With hindsight, I think that it would have helped to have a drawing of just those 3 colours plus white and clearly defined shapes.

But then again, part of the interest and impact in the print results from the complex textures and chance effects how the colours printed over each other. When improving the process, I think it will be important to leave an element of chance and improvisation to not kill the outcome by perfection. It might be a matter of balancing though. I think I’m going to try out a more defined approach in the future an see how I get along with it.

Lessons learnt from this project

• The drawing to use as a master for the linocut should be well defined with respect to the colours that are going to be printed. I’d like to have a technique using multiple colours to create a source image that I can rework until it represents a guide for the subsequent cutting.
• It helps to have a mirrored image of the source image to work out the linoplates, eg texture within shapes
• If inks are supposed to be transparent, no white should be added
• Avoid on the fly alignment corrections like printing outside of registration marks or later cutting on the linoplate (texture corrections are ok though). Instead, try to work from a well defined source image and resolve alignment issues before printing
• Try to resolve registration issues arising from linoplate size deviations before even starting to transfer the image on the plates.