02 Chai Yong Qi

Step 1: Sketch and outline rabbit

Step 2: Start cutting 

Step 3: Finish cutting and ready to print!

Step 4: Print it out using black ink and paper and you're done! :)

Step 1: Take selfie and crop out unnecessary parts to put into powerpoint and change to 50% transparency then print it out. If i had a chance to retake, I would have tidied my hair as fine hair is quite hard to cut.

Step 2: Use 2B pencil and sketch out face shadow and lines, shade what you want to be black. I wasn't used to drawing out shadows but i tried :")

Step 3: Use 4B pencil to draw it on other side of paper and use colour pencils to colour it in. I chose pink as I wanted something close to flesh colour and I chose green as I wanted a background that symbolised a garden.

Step 4: Then, trace it onto a linocut and cut the parts that you want white. (Sorry I accidentally cut a little of my neck) It was very difficult to cut the eyes as it was so small.

Step 5: Print it out and check if there is anything to improve! At first, a lot of paint got into my eyes but after cutting it more and putting less paint, I could finally see my eyes! However, this print here is too light and has too many imperfections, therefore it wasn't a good print. I cleaned the sides as I only needed the flesh colour.

Step 6: Cut out your face to print the background colour. I had to cut very deep for this one in order for my face to not have the colour of my background, and I even accidentally cut through the linocut during that process :0.

Step 7: Print it out and see what you can improve! In this print, there is a lot of imperfections on my face and neck so I had to cut more and reprint a few times. To cut the parts i don't need more accurately, i cut the linocut before washing so I could see which parts got the ink and remove it.

After a lot of tries, I was finally able to cut out most of the imperfections and this was my best effort :)

Step 8: Print the background onto the ones that have your flesh colour on it. This is one of my bad prints as the paint was too thick which covered my eyes. However, I used one of my bad pink prints so it was alright.

Finally, I printed a better print but this still wasn't the BEST as there were still a few imperfection like not enough ink and my ear having too much ink so I took note of that and printed again on my good print.

Finally, a good print! It was quite clean and had just the right amount of ink across my face. The face does not need any green paint as it is not part of the background. This also reduces the chance of messing up my face again! 

Step 9: Then, it was time to cut out the background to print black for my hair and shadows. Again, I had to cut it VERY deep to prevent it from leaving black dots on my background and ruining it.

Step 10: Print it out and see what you can improve! I had A LOT of black imperfections so this meant that I had to cut EVEN deeper. I used the same method of cutting the linocut before washing so I could see which parts got the ink and remove it.

This print was much much MUCH cleaner, however it still had some improvements that could be made. Since only a few dots remained, I just used a cloth to wipe them off.

This print was my best print and the cleanest! It had the right amount of ink and no imperfections at all! With this, I went on the print on my actual print.

Step 11: Print it out on actual print. On the first few tries, I was left with these big empty spaces that was supposed to have black ink. I later came to learn that it might have been because there was too much paint on the paper therefore the ink was unable to seep through the thick layer of paint and onto the paper, so it was unable to be printed properly.

Another example of bad print :(

FINALLY with A LOT of tries and using a brush to fill in a little of the imperfections, I had a good print! In fact, I had two! From this linocut experience, I learnt to be more patient as one small difference when printing or cutting can lead to ruining your whole linoprint! I also learnt to be more careful as I almost went on to cutting my face when I didn't even have 3-5 good prints because I had forgotten that I needed to print it.

Another one of my good print that I am very proud of :)