LinoCut Self Portrait

For this project, we were first assigned to practice carving on the LinoCut. We were given the choice to pick two images or objects that were the opposite of each other, one representing negative space, and one representing positive space. I chose a shirt and pants, the shirt being the positive space, and the pants negative space. We then inked our LinoCut and printed it on a piece of paper. For this project, we used carving tools, LinoCut, ink, and a bench hook. I feel proud of the way I applied my ink to the LinoCut, but I think I could have done better on printing. There were areas where I didn't press hard enough, which made it come out with an uneven area of black and white when it was supposed to only be black. If I were to do this assignment over again, I would make sure to press harder with the spoon or the mechanical printer to make a more solid area of black or white.

The second part of this assignment was to carve a self portrait out of LinoCut and print it on 4 different things. My LinoCut is the first picture. We were assigned to first do artist prints, which are prints you make to test your LinoCut before you do the finished product. I had to do 5 artist prints. The next thing I did was do my black and white print (2). I then did my hand colored print (3). I used watercolor and painted the white space pink/red/purple. After that, I did text from a dictionary as my alternate background (4). I used a page that had words similar to "free." My final print was on an elevation map (5). For this project, we used LinoCut, carving tools, a bench hook, watercolor paint, ink, and paper. If I were to do this project over again, I would try not to get ink on the areas where ink wasn't supposed to go. I could do this by being more precise while inking and having a level rolling station. I think that if I printed more evenly, my prints would look more like me than they do now.