How do I get started with linocut Printmaking?
In this post, I’ll give you a run-down of the basic tools and materials to get you started making your very own linocut or Block Print, as well as walk you through the steps
A Brief Definition
Using a carved or etched material covered in ink to transfer an image onto paper, fabric, or other surfaces.
Linocut, also known as “relief” printing, is a printing technique where the raised surface of a material receives ink and is then pressed onto a substrate, resulting in an inked impression of the raised surface. This technique is mainly used for printing text, images, and patterns onto paper, fabric, wood, or other materials. Other types of relief printing include woodcuts and engraving, which can sometimes be referred to as "block printing."
Blocks can be carved from a variety of materials, including wood, linoleum, and rubber. So far, I’ve only experimented with linoleum and rubber block carving.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about printmaking, check out one of my previous blog posts here.
Materials you’ll need
Linoleum or rubber carving blocks
Carving tools
V-tools
U-gouges
Multi-tool with interchangeable blades
Relief Printing Ink
There are both water-based and oil-based inks available. Water-based inks facilitate easier cleanup, but oil-based inks tend to produce better results and have slower drying times, allowing you more time to work.
For water-based inks, Speedball inks are easily accessible and cost-effective. However, my favorite inks are Cranfield Caligo Safe Wash inks. They are vegetable oil-based and provide professional-quality results without the hassle of needing solvents for cleanup, unlike traditional oil-based inks.
Brayer (roller) for rolling out your ink, I find rolling the ink onto a piece of glass makes for the smoothest rolling. You can use a piece of glass from an old picture frame or opt for an inexpensive mirror. If you don’t have glass available to roll your ink onto, you can make do with an inexpensive baking sheet (buy a cheap one at a thrift store or dollar store, and refrain from using it for food preparation).
Printing surfaces
Paper
Fabric
wood
Optional tools and materials
Baren- a tool used to rub the back of your paper to help transfer the ink from your block onto the paper. However, you can make do with the back of a wooden or silver spoon.
Newsprint - I use this for testing prints as I carve and during cleanup.
Cutting mat- The type that seamstresses use for quilting. These come in many sizes and are marked with a grid. This helps in measuring and cutting your paper to size as well as lining up your paper with your carving block to ensure your prints are lined up and don’t come out crooked.
Carbon paper- for transferring your design onto your carving block.
This is the kit that got me started. You can purchase it from both Blick Art Materials and Amazon.
Preparing Your Workspace
Drawing and carving your design doesn’t require much space. You can draw and carve at a small desk or table. Good lighting is preferred when you begin to carve your design.
Setting up an inking station requires a bit more space. Again, a table or countertop can be used. You will need space to lay down your carving block, a space to roll out your ink, and a space to lay down your ink brayer when not in use. I would recommend protecting your surface with newsprint or other scrap paper to prevent staining from the highly pigmented inks.
Designing Your Print
Choosing a subject or theme
What might arguably be the most challenging part of the printmaking process is deciding what you want your image to be. I recommend sticking with a simple image for your first couple of prints. Think more along the lines of a coloring book page than a highly detailed photograph. It’s not that your Linocut block can't be detailed and intricate, but for a first-time user, I think it’s best to keep things simple at first and then work up to adding detail as you get to know your tools and materials and feel more confident.
Sketching your design
Once you decide on a subject for your sketch, you will want to sketch it out on a piece of paper or tracing paper the size of your carving block. You’ll want to keep in mind that if you are adding words to your design, your words will need to be mirrored on the carving block to ensure they come out correctly on your final print.
Transferring your design to linoleum
Once you have finalized your sketch, you’ll want to transfer it onto your carving block. There are many ways to achieve this.
First, if you are confident you can reproduce your drawing, you can sketch it directly onto your carving block.
Second, you can use carbon transfer paper and trace the lines of your drawing to transfer onto the carving block.
If you don’t have carbon paper, you can still transfer your drawing onto your carving block using graphite pencil lead. Trace your design or sketch with a graphite pencil. (Better yet, if your sketch was already done in pencil, you can skip this step.) Turn the paper face down onto your carving block and tape it into place so it doesn’t move. Then, using a spoon, a plastic pan scraper, or a similar tool, rub the back of your paper to transfer the graphite lines onto your carving block. I find that this method works best on softer rubber carving blocks, but it also works on traditional linoleum. It just takes a bit more pressure and rubbing.
Once your design has been transferred either with pencil or carbon paper, you may want to go over the transferred lines with a fine-tip Sharpie.
Carving the Linoleum Block
Understanding the carving process
Using a set of linoleum cutters, carefully carve away the areas that are not part of your design, leaving the raised sections to create the image. Any area you carve away will remain white or the color of your chosen paper in the design. Any bits of the linoleum you leave uncarved will be raised, and that is where your ink will be applied. You can choose to have your background be inked, and your linework remain white, or you can carve away the background, leaving the raised lines of your design. This is an artistic choice. Check out some examples below.
Safety
It is essential to keep in mind that your carving tools are sharp, and if you don’t pay attention, you can easily slip and injure yourself. Always carve away from the fingers on your free hand. Apply even pressure while carving to help avoid slips and ensure clean edges on your carving lines.
While I try to keep my free hand out of the way of the blade, I have found, as you see pictured below, that it is helpful to rest the index finger of my free hand on the blade to help guide it in the direction I want it to go. It isn’t “proper,” but it works for me, and you’ll likely find a technique that works for you.
Carving Techniques
Effective carving techniques focus on balancing outlines, solid areas, and texture. Outlines define shapes, making it easier for viewers to recognize forms. Solid areas add depth and dimension to the piece. To create visual interest, various linework or stippling can be used to add texture. In the same way, you may use cross-hatching or stippling dots on the page of a pencil drawing to add shading and texture. With practice, you’ll find that you can achieve the same results with your carving tools. This combination of outlines, solid parts, and texture enhances the piece's appeal, encouraging viewers to appreciate its details.
If you're a beginner with carving tools, I recommend you take some time to get familiar with them. You can do so by carving different marks into a scrap piece of linoleum and testing the various marks and line thicknesses made by each of your tools or tips.
This image is a great example using more solid places for the stems, outline cuts for the flower petals, and cross hatching on the leaves to add texture as well as leaving some bit s of the carved background to add some light texture to the background of the print.
Inking Your Block
Preparing the ink
You’ll want to squeeze your chosen ink color out onto your rolling surface. As previously discussed, this might be a piece of glass, a mirror, or a designated baking sheet. Whatever surface you choose, the smoother it is, the better. Squeeze your ink out into a line at the top of your inking surface about the width of your brayer (roller)
Rolling out the ink on the inking plate
To roll out your ink, you’ll want to take your brayer and dip it into the line of ink you just squeezed out. Once you have some ink on your roller, set it down toward the bottom of your inking surface and push the roller forward. Lift the roller, set it back down at the bottom, and repeat the process.
Take care to lift the roller and set it back down rather than just rolling back and forth without lifting it. Lifting the roller allows you to set it back down, allowing ink to touch a new spot on the roller. Repeating this several times will ensure your roller is coated evenly.
Two tips to help you know when you have the right amount of ink.
The ink on your rolling surface should look solid and have the texture of an orange peel. If the ink is too thick and resembles a wall texture, you’ll want to roll some of it off onto scrap paper or newsprint. Keep rolling until the consistency smooths out.
When you are rolling out the ink, you should hear a sticky sound. If the ink is too thick, your roller will slip around, but when the consistency is just right, it sounds a bit sticky.
Applying ink to the block correctly
Once your roller is evenly covered in ink, you will roll the ink onto your carving block. You may have to roll your brayer in the ink and then onto the block several times to achieve an even coat. Many thin layers are better than trying to apply a thick layer.
Take care to make sure you get the edges inked. Allowing the brayer to hang off the edge if need be, while you roll the ink on. More often than not, when you go to pull a print, it is the edges that are lacking ink.
Printing Your Design
For the purpose of this tutorial, I’ll assume you do not own or have access to a printing press, so we will focus on hand printing.
Properly positioning paper on the inked block.
In the printmaking world, lining the paper up with the block is called “registration.” Registration is a method of lining up your block and paper to ensure your prints come out straight and not crooked. There are many methods of registering your prints, but for this beginner tutorial, we will focus on two simple methods.
Creating a registration board
For this technique, you will need to decide on the size of paper you will be printing on. Then, place your printing block in the center of the page, using a ruler to ensure the block is centered. Once your block is centered on the page, trace an outline of the block onto the page. You’ll lay this page on your printing surface and place the carving block inside this traced boundary each time you ink up.
Using a cutting mat
Using a cutting mat is similar to the above-mentioned method; however, in this instance, you will use the grid marks on the cutting mat to align your print. To make it even easier, you can mark a corner of the grid to show you where to place your carving block, and another corner where you need to place your paper.
Pulling your prints
Now that your inked block is placed, grab a clean sheet of printing paper and line up one edge of the paper with the edge of the registration page or grid. It doesn’t matter what edge you line up, do what is comfortable for you. Once the edge is lined up, use one hand to hold that edge in place and slowly lower the rest of your page down over your carving block. You can use your hands to press the paper into the ink initially, and then switch over to your baren, or spoon, rubbing even pressure all over the page to help transfer the ink from the block onto the page.
You can check the transfer by holding one side of your page in place and lifting the opposite edge carefully. This will indicate whether your ink has transferred correctly. In some cases, laying the page back down and rubbing more will darken the ink transfer; however, there are scenarios when you may not have had even coverage of ink on the block, or perhaps too light coverage. You’ll want to pull several test prints until you get a feel for the amount of ink you need to apply and the amount of pressure required to transfer the ink to the page.
Finalizing Your Prints
Drying your prints
Depending on the type of ink you used, your prints may dry in a couple of hours, or it may take several days. Oil-based inks take much longer to dry. You will need to have a place where you can either allow the prints to lie flat without stacking them, or you can fashion a sort of hanging line to hang them up to dry.
Once your prints are fully dry, you will you can store in a file folder, or store flat on a shelf, If you plan to give as gifts or sell your prints you may want to invest in clear sleeves to individually wrap your prints and keep them from getting smudged by finger prints until the recipient decides how they will display their print.
Display
Your dry prints can be displayed in a frame, either with or without a mat.
You may elect to use your carving block to print on greeting cards, wood blocks, or onto fabric pieces to use in sewing projects. Feel free to get creative!
If you give this project a go, I would love to see your creations! You can email me at shasta@shastamariedesigns, or tag me on Instagram or Facebook at @shastmariedesigns.
