How to make a reduction lino print

Today I got to work on my reduction lino print! I had already cut away all the areas that I wanted to leave white, so I got to ink up with blue straight away. I made a lovely purpley-blue by mixing ultramarine blue and white together. I have discovered that lino printing is actually very satisfying! Carving away the harder top of the plate to reveal not just your design but also the softer part, hearing the 'squish' of the brayer on ink as you roll across the glass and then your plate...and then pulling up the paper after rolling it through the press to see the backwards image from your piece of lino appear as a beautiful print on paper! It's all a rather exciting and satisfying process, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

As you know, this one is a reduction linocut, which means you progressively carve away the areas as you print. So today I printed blue, next week after cutting away all the sky, I'll print red! Then I'll cut away everything else except what needs to stay black, and I'll ink up black and it will be finished!

First inking of my reduction linocut print.

The first image is the paper after inking with blue. The second image is a ghost print. That's where you put another sheet of paper over the plate without re-inking it up, and put it straight back through the press. The result will be an image that is considerably lighter than the first one as there is less ink on the plate.

Ghost print of the same lino.

 I actually really like the ghost print, and I think seeing as I have enough to play around with and still get my edition of 5, I'm going to leave one exactly as it is, and I'm going to do a reduction ghost print. That is, using one of the ghost prints I did today as a base for a ghost print of each other progressive colour. It will be interesting to see the three prints together after they are done.

Cape Leeuwin - this painting will be on exhibition in March/April at Red Rock Gallery!

On another note, I found out yesterday that one of my paintings has been accepted into a gallery showing! My Cape Leeuwin lighthouse will be exhibited at the Red Rock Regional Gallery and Theatre in Corooroke, just outside of Colac in Victoria! This is a very exciting day for me!

Next time I post, I'll hopefully have another painting finished - I've been working on one for my brother and new sister-in-law as their wedding present! It's almost done, so stay tuned to see it!

That's it for today - see you next time!