Linocut Relief Print Self-Portrait

Our assignment was to find a picture of ourself, turn it black and white, put the picture into Acorn and posterized it so the picture would only be black and white, no gray. Then I printed off the picture and covered the back in pencil lead and put the paper on a linoleum block and using a pen pressed down on all the black so when I took off the paper there was a copy of the picture, Then I carved out all the empty space and did many, many APs (artist proofs). I had to make 4 final prints with different backgrounds, the first one on just a white piece of paper, the second one on a hand colored background, the third print on an alternate background and the fourth print on my choice. When printing my APs and final prints I used printing ink, ink roller, piece of glass, paper, a piece of a map and water colors. I had to print many APs because when I printed there would be marks from the background that was supposed to be white so at least seven times I had to let the ink dry on the block and carve out more linoleum. The picture I chose is of me and Sadie, my sister. This relates to my life because w are very close and the picture is representation of our relationship. I am proudest that I kept all the borders clean with no ink smudges. I definitely struggled with the making the background white and not having lines in the background. I overcame this by making sure not to over ink my block and only roll ink where it's needed. If I was to reprint any of my prints I would reprint the alternate background because I ended up covering the location that I wanted on it.