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The Lino Cut
The Lino Cut
Follow the directions below to create your own Lino Cut print.
Step 1: Come Up With a Design!
Step 1: Come Up With a Design!
Before you go anywhere near tools you need to come up with a design first! This could be anything you want really, if you can draw it and its not too terribly detailed or thin, you can probably carve if out of your linoleum. I particularly like the look of animal linocuts and anatomical linocuts, but its up to you! You can sketching a rough idea out onto a scrap piece of paper to practice!
Before you go anywhere near tools you need to come up with a design first! This could be anything you want really, if you can draw it and its not too terribly detailed or thin, you can probably carve if out of your linoleum. I particularly like the look of animal linocuts and anatomical linocuts, but its up to you! You can sketching a rough idea out onto a scrap piece of paper to practice!
Step 2: Put Your Design on Your Linoleum Sheet.
Step 2: Put Your Design on Your Linoleum Sheet.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING.
Remember this is a print, and ANYTHING YOU PUT ON YOUR LINOCUT WILL BE BACKWARDS WHEN PRINTED.
If you have a symmetrical design, this isn't a problem. I personally don't ever work with letters, numbers, or words, so I just draw my design directly onto my linosheet, flipped from how I want it to be. If you are using letters or numbers, I suggest drawing out your design out, copy it onto tracing paper, and then using a piece of graphite paper to transfer the image onto your linoleum sheet backwards. This way, when it is printed it will be correct.
First, get your image onto your linoleum with pencil. When you like it, trace over it with your black sharpie. I suggest making a border around your image so that you linoleum is flat when you print it and so the image has a nice little border of its own, but this is not necessary.
Step 4: SAFETY!!!!
Step 4: SAFETY!!!!
You are going to be working with very, VERY sharp tools in order to cut your linoleum. They might look like nice and innocent little blades, but they can do some real damage.
Rules for using linocutting tools
1. ALWAYS CUT AWAY FROM YOU.
This is a general rule when using any sharp object, but its a good thing to remember
2. KNOW WHERE YOUR FINGERS ARE AT ALL TIMES.
This sounds stupid. How do you lose track of your finger? I promise you, it will happen. When you are carving, your non-carving hand will need to hold the piece of linoleum down to keep it from slipping and moving across your table. Instinctively you will want to hold it at the edge furthest from you, but if you are carving away from yourself, this puts your hand right in the path of your blades. No matter how much control you think you have, I promise you will slip from time to time. If your fingers are in the way, you will cut them. Trust me, your blades are sharp.
Step 4: Cut Away!
Step 4: Cut Away!
In this step you should CAREFULLY start cutting away your negative space, or the part of your linocut print that you want to show the white of the page, with no ink. This is the part of the print we did NOT ink with a sharpie. Remember, you can always cut away more, but once you have cut something off, it is gone for good!
For larger areas, use one of your larger U-blades, the scoup like attachment to your linocutter. For fine detail, use the smallest of your U-blades and/or your straight blade. Some people like to trace all their outlines with their straight blade, first, but personally I don't think it really makes a difference. Be patient, as rushing will leave plenty of mistakes! Be especially careful on tight curves, sharp edges, and narrow cuts. The more you practice at this, the easier it will become!
Step 5: Ink Up Your Linocut!
Step 5: Ink Up Your Linocut!
So you've finished carving out your linocut, and now its time to ink it!
1. Get that ink on there!
Put about a spoonful (depending on how big your print is) of ink into the center of your glass pane.
2. Start rolling!
Start rolling your ink around. Experiment with your brayer a little bit to make sure it is rolling the paint, not simply pushing it around without turning. If at first you can't get it to turn, keep going, sometimes it takes a few minutes for the ink to smooth out enough for the brayer to start rolling. Try and spread the ink evenly across the pane. If your paint is super sticky and hard to roll out, try squirting a tiny bit of water on it with a squirt bottle.
3. Aim for that smooth, velvety texture!
When rolling, its best to go at a quick pace. If you take too long, your ink will start to dry, which is no bueno! After you have rolled for a bit, you will notice that rolling starts to become noisy, and the texture of the ink will change. Ideally, you want to roll until your ink starts to look velvety.
4. Ink the linocut!
Once you have your desired texture, use your brayer to roll the ink onto your linocut. This may take a few passes and you may have to briefly roll your brayer on your glass pane again to pick up more ink, but don't take too long or the ink will dry!
Step 6: Print!
Step 6: Print!
Time to transfer that baby to paper!
1. Take your paper, and gently place it over your inked block.
Even if its sort of off, don't try and move it. You can always cut the paper down later to get it nice and evenly centered
2. Tap down in the center
This is just to get the paper to stick and keep it from sliding!
3. Roll it flat/ smooth with hands
You can use a house hold object such as a rolling pin, piece of PVC pipe, or water bottle to roll across the top of the paper, like one would while rolling out cookie dough to make shaped cookies. I personally just gently start rubbing the top of the paper in circles to get a nice even distribution of ink.
4. Peel away!
From one end only, peel your paper off gently.
5. Practice!
Its unlikely you'll get a perfect print your first go. Keep trying, as well as experimenting with different methods as to what works best for you.
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