Scarlette produces highly coloured reduction linocut prints in many many layers. Her work often features architectural or industrial features but the colour schemes are very vibrant.
Before the course, out tutor sent us some suggested reference material in the form of links to websites which I've added here for my own future reference.
http://greatnorthartshow.co.uk/the-history-and-process-of-linocut-print-from-paupers-to-picasso/
This gives a brief history of Lino printing
http://www.kevintraditionalprintmaker.co.uk/index.php/process/
Kevin is the artist who taught Scarlette the reduction process - this gives an explanation of his approach. It takes you through a print from start to finish which has about 17 layers to it and is very complex.
She also suggested to looks at the work of Arthur Homeshaw. Click here to link to images of his work on the Artizan Gallery website
His linocuts are, once again complex and in multiple layers and he seems to be inspired by the local landscape and the elements - he seems to like angular trees misshapen by years of fighting against the wind. Obviously none of us on this beginners course were going to produce anything like this but nevertheless looking at these sites showed us what was possible and was therefore inspiring.
Day 1:
I had prepared some sketches which were about A5 in size and which I though would be suitable for a reduction linocut. I wasn't that enamoured with the design to be honest - it seemed a bit stiff and twee but I thought it would be straightforward design to get started with. However, when we arrived we were given square pieces of Lino to cut. My composition would not really adapt to a square format so I abandoned it.
Scarlette often uses photographic imagery as her inspiration but photocopies it into black and white so she won't be unduly influenced by the original colour scheme. I had Brough some photographs with me and settled on a close up of my cat's face. (The cat's name is 'Princess Suzie' -named by my son when he was 6 and a complete misnomer as she is not at all refined but an expert hunter who decimates the local rodent population - giving her the nickname 'killer queen).
I traced round areas of markedly differing tonal values and colours and then transferred the tracing onto the lino. I re-inforced the drawing with biro as the pencil would have rubbed off after the first printing and cleaning of the lino.
For the first cut of the lino I cut away all the areas which I wanted to show as the white of the paper - the stripe down the centre of her face, highlights on the eyes and the whiskers. I realised I had made life difficult for myself by drawing dots to represent where the whiskers come out of the face - this meant I had to cut around these small dots - It was difficult so I couldn't afford to be a perfectionist about it - I lost some of them and some remained bigger than I would have liked but this seemed to make them more organic so I wasn't too concerned about that.
We used the grey hessian-backed lino and it wasn't a warm day which made it more difficult to cut. I had heard that putting the lino on a radiator or using a hairdryer on it can help. However, Scarlette warned us that this can sometimes make the lino brittle because of overheating. She suggested we sit on out lino for few minutes to warm it slowly to near body temperature - this worked quite well. I had also invested in a couple of Swiss made cutting tools (one U shaped and one V shaped) which were very sharp and really aided my cutting.
For the first print layer I mixed up a pale fleshy pink colour using lots of opaque white with a touch of red and yellow. Because we were using the Hawthorn 'stay open' inks and we wanted them to dry more quickly to add more layers, we added cobalt driers to the ink when we mixed them up.
We made a registration guide by placing the lino white we wanted the print to be on a piece of paper the same size as that onto which we would be printing. We drew round the lino then marked one of the corners (the lower left corner) so as always to register the lino to the same corner. We also marked 'top' so we'd remember which way round to place everything.
We were making an edition of 5 so I printed 5 of my first layer of fleshy pink using the relief press (platen press). You could see an outline from the black biro on some of them but Scarlette assured me that this would not show once further layers were added (and she was right).
Next I cut out the areas I wanted to remain pink. That included some of the whisker pores, the nose and the third eyelid. By this time (because we had also spent some time on explanations and demonstrations) there was not time to print the next layer.
Day 2:
I started by printing the next layer in a pale green. I then went away and cut out the irises of the eyes which were the only truly green areas.
I waited as long as I dared to allow as much drying time as possible but it was obvious that the old based ink wasn't really going to dry in a few hours so we had to print wet onto wet.
I mixed up a pale yellowy beige colour for the next layer. Of course this mixed with the underlying green but it produced quite an exciting and vivid almost luminous green. I found the process of registration quite nerve-wracking as it was so easy to get it slightly out and I was paranoid about losing the cat's whiskers.
Next it was time to cut the tabby markings. I was able to go to town a bit more with this with making marks - I enjoyed this bit the most as I didn't have to really stick to the lines religiously. I then overprinted with a very dark Prussian blue.
There was a but of a grainy texture to the final prints because of the wet-into wet printing and the registration was a bit variable, but overall I am pleased with the results for my first attempt at reduction linocut. Scarlette was a good teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed the course.
I had to wrap the wet prints in newsprint to transport them home. Some ink transfer occurred onto the newsprint giving a sort of 'counterproof'. I drew into this with a pen and placed it in my sketchbook.
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