8 Kwa Tze Ting

Step 1: Line drawing of cat

Step 2: Lino cut in progress

Step 3: Lino cut completed

Step 4: Lino print (first time)

Step 4: Lino print (second time)

1. Use a pencil to draw out the black and white design - mark out the shadows and the parts that are going to be cut out.

2.  Use the lightbox to draw the reverse of the black & white design on the other side of the paper.  

3. Use a piece of carbon paper and a ballpoint pen to draw the reverse portrait onto the lino. Afterwards, outline it using a blue marker and colour in the parts that are going to be black. 

4. Choose two contrasting colours  for the colour scheme. Use one colour to colour in the skin and use the other colour to colour in the background. (I chose yellow for my skin and blue for my background!) Afterwards, write the cutting and printing steps  clearly at the bottom so that you would not get confused. 

5.  Start the carving stage by first carving out the white parts, which are the reflections on the hair and face and my shirt. 

6. Using the colour of ink that you have planned (in my case it was yellow), print out the first print. Print the same thing 3-5 times. The above picture shows my first print. I made a mistake by adding too much ink hence the ink seeped into the parts that were supposed to be white. 

7. The above picture shows my second print. 

8. The above picture shows my third print. I think this is the best one because there is a solid colour on my face.

9. The above picture shows my fourth and final print. 

10. (I forgot to take a picture) Referring back to the colour scheme, start the second carving stage by cutting out the yellow parts, which are my face and neck. 

11. (I also forgot to take a picture) Using the second colour of ink (in my case it was blue), do a test print. The cutting around my face and neck was not clean, hence I had to cut the lino again. I also used too little ink, hence I need to remember to use more when I print on my actual print so that I can get a solid background.

12. After editing my lino, I did another test print. This time my face is very clean and the background colour is quite solid, so I can proceed to print on my actual print.

13. Print the lino coated with blue ink over the first yellow print. From the above picture, you can see that I did not spread the ink out evenly on the lino, hence my background is very patchy. Thus for my next print, I decided to use my cloth to wipe away the ink on my face so that I can focus on getting a solid background. 

14. The above picture shows my second print. The background is already more solid than in the first print, but there are still some white spots that I can touch up on. 

15. The above picture shows my third print. The first time I printed the blue ink, the background turned out very patchy. Hence I decided to recoat my lino and print again. However, I did not align the paper properly when I printed the second time, hence the print came out with a double image. 

15. The above picture shows my fourth print. Although there are some white gaps in my face, I think that this is now my best print as the background is the most solid. 

16. Based on the colour scheme, start the final carving stage by cutting out the blue parts, which is the background. Afterwards, print  using black ink. 

17.  Just like the previous colour, I did a test print before printing on my actual print so that I can check if my cutting is clean.  There are still some streaks of black ink in the background, hence I had to cut the lino again. 

18. After refining my lino, I did a second test print over my previous colour test print. This time the background is clean and there are no more unwanted markings, hence I decided to start printing on the actual print. 

19. I used the black ink to print on my actual print. I was surprised that it turned out patchy because I did not have this problem when I was doing the test print. To fix this problem, I decided to print the black twice in my next print. 

20. The above picture shows my second print. This is ultimately my favourite print as my facial features are printed out clearly (not too much ink in the eyes) and the colours are all very solid. 

21. The above picture shows my third print. Similarly, I printed the black twice, hence it is solid. 

22. The above picture shows my fourth print. While wanting to have a solid black colour, I rolled the ink over my eyes too many times, hence the ink seeped into the cut parts and my whole eyeball turned out black.