What I learned today, with my very first printing of my very first lino blocks. I've been taking an online class with AGI-Art Linocut course.
Sampler to try different patterns and tools.
Lino is much harder than Speedy-carve carving but much more detail can be achieved.
Lino printing is very messy and time consuming. I should have cleaned off a large area of the workspace and covered it with plastic. It is challenging to be clean when handling the paper and an inked block!
I'm glad I had three different blocks to print to make it more worthwhile to get into all this mess.
Carved Block
It is challenging to get a nice coating of ink on the block and to pick out any bits of dust or little bits of carved lino, as they always show on the print.
Inked Block
Pulling a print by hand requires a lot of pressure with a barren and a big wooden spoon. It is very hard to get a perfect print, transferring all the ink, especially from the large un-carved areas. Maybe I’ll get a press someday.
The registration of the paper went pretty well for just doing single inked prints. If doing multiple prints of different colors where registration is extremely important I will need a different system. Maybe a bench hook.
I need a good place to let them dry without stacking them so right now they are covering my dining room table.
Cleaning up was a real bear. The videos in the classes always make it look so easy. I used Cranfield Caligo, Safe Wash Ink that is an oil based ink, but cleans up with soap and water.
Still, it took a lot of soap and water and elbow grease to get the plates, the rollers, printing area etc. cleaned.
Don't use plastic palette knives. They break. One more thing I need to order.
Chatter and noise in the background of a print is both acceptable and non acceptable and totally up to the artist.
Right now, I find it adds an interesting texture and adds to the hand printed quality. So I'm not going to worry about it.
There is much ink left on the inking plate when you're done printing the larger lino prints. I used this to print a few of my Speedy-carve blocks and found that it took much less ink to ink up a Speedy-carve block than a lino block. After printing eight greeting cards, there was still quite a bit of ink on the plate, and I tried inking up a lino block again and could not get a good coating of ink for 1 final print.
Sea Stacks from the Bay of Fundy and a bear I carved on the trip in the fall.