Materials

Materials required:
Black felt pen or tracing paper
Lino
Lino carving tools
Scissors
Paper for printing (I use Fabriano Artistic TW HP 200gsm)
Etching ink (oil based gets best results)
Baren or, large spoon
Palette knife
Roller

Cleaning aids:
Methylated spirits
Rags
Rubber gloves
Face mask

Let’s get started!

PART ONE:
Black & white Lino Print

Transfer your design onto the Lino block. Your design can be drawn directly onto the Lino with a felt tip pen or by using tracing paper (simply rub pencil over the back of your design on tracing paper, place onto the Lino and draw over design again to transfer).

With scissors cut out the shape of the design.

Determine which areas of the print you prefer white and which black.
Why? Because the white areas will need to be carved out and the areas you want black need to remain intact.
(To prevent carving mistakes you can always colour in the areas you want black and then carve out the rest).

Proceed to carve out areas of the print you want white.

Using a palette knife scrape the top layer of black etching ink onto a hard surface, (I find glass or perspex ideal as it cleans up easily).
Then use your roller to spread out the ink evenly over the surface and, the roller.








The ink should feel and sound tacky when there is a suitable amount of ink to get a successful print.











Using your roller, roll the ink over the Lino block in vertical and horizontal directions to ensure there is sufficient layer of ink to get a good print. Again, the ink on the block should appear a little tacky on the surface.

Lay out your paper ready to receive the Lino block for printing.





Place your inked Lino block face down on the paper.

Holding the Lino block and the paper together flip over so that the paper is face up and the Lino block face down.

Using a Baren or the back of a large spoon in a circular motion encourage the ink to adhere to the paper. When you can see the ink ghosting through the paper it is a good sign that you have applied enough pressure.


Carefully peel away the paper to reveal your print.

PART TWO:
Adding Colour to the print

How you choose to decorate with colour is up to you. I like to cut out random coloured shapes which do not line up with the overall design. This gives the composition a bit of humour and a retro feel.
Cut out your colour paper and stick down with rice glue.
To help line up the Lino block with the coloured paper make a few faint pencil marks to guide you. Keep in mind that the print will be in reverse.

Place the Lino block onto of the prepared coloured paper, flip over and print as outlined in Part One.

Trust you had fun and will continue to create great work!

Cristina