Linocuts & Block Printing

History

• Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper.

• Block printing started as the most basic form of printing to copy books and texts

• Later it became a decorative and art form

History

• Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed.

Vocabulary• Linocut – a design carved in relief into a block of linoleum • Additive Art – adding materials to the surface of something

to create art (Example: painting)• Subtractive Art – taking away parts of an object or surface

to create art (Example: carving)• Reduction Linocut - An art process where an artist works in

reverse to apply layers of color to build an image from the bottom up. Once an area of colour has been printed it must be carved away to allow it to show through when the next, darker colour is printed over the top. This calls for extreme accuracy in laying the same piece of paper on the lino block for each colour. It also means that the artist cannot go back to a previous colour because that part of the lino block has been carved away.

Vocab 2• Relief - sculpture consisting of shapes carved on a

surface so as to stand out from the surrounding background

• Motif – A single or repeated design.• Brayer – a hand roller used in printmaking techniques

to spread ink or to offset an image from a plate to paper

• To Ink – the process of using a brayer to apply ink to a print block or plate

• Plate –a printable surface on which a relief carving has been made, another word for a lino block

• To Pull a Print – the act of transferring an inked plate’s image onto paper, stamping

Vocab 3

• Print – The image made after the inked plate has been transferred to the paper.

• Proof – A test print to check the progress of the inked plate.

• Register – To line up.• Edition – A series of final prints• Final – The last print on the paper.

Technique

• Roll out ink with a brayer

• Use brayer to lightly ink the plate

Makes the negative or reverse image…

Simple Linocut

Colors!

Reduction Linocut

• Creating an image by removing one layer at a time to reveal the colors below

From the Artist:• This three-colour horned owl asking,

"Who?" is unusual for me. I rarely make reduction prints. I printed this edition of only 5 prints on a press in a series of steps. First, I printed a flat yellow rectangle. Then, I carved away the areas of the lino which I wished to be yellow, like the eyes. I printed the red layer. I carved away more orangey feathers and the text, "Who?" - in reverse, of course. ;) Lastly, I printed the top, black layer of this nocturnal creature.

• -Ele Willoughby