#printoctober: linocut

It started with the missing brayer. I don't know exactly when I lost it. I saw it often when I didn't need it, and hadn't needed it in years. And then I started with monotypes and thought how handy it would be to roll the brayer over the top of the paper to print. But I couldn't find it. So I was using a spoon. True story.

My husband in a show of support went out to buy me a brayer and found a small intro to linoleum block printing kit, with a brayer included. Somewhere I have wood block carving stuff, but I haven't even tried to look for that and now here's this kit. And it #printoctober. And you don't need a press for linocuts. So here we are and what am I going to do with this?

Block printing is very graphic and my work just isn't at this point, but I came up with a plan. Keeping with the small landscape idea and to use a blend. (of course now I'm thinking I need multiple blocks...)

inadvertent ad for Speedball

I was thinking of this piece to recreate. I drive by this spot often and I really like it.

copse

Here's a bit of the blend: violet, white and brown. I found clearanced ink at Michael's and was thrilled that there was magenta and yellow, but no cyan. Violet would have to do for now. And since I had to get the violet, and there was no green either, I got brown. And red.

the blend

the inked block

the print. 

It's not a great print. The 4" brayer is a little narrower than the 4" block. hmm... Bigger would be better here. And I was a little too delicate with the carving, so I will be reworking this in the next few days and reprinting. The thicker linework shows very well, but the rest gets lost, so I need to bump up all of the cuts to the next size blade.