This is my initial design for my rainbow rolled lino cut incorporating a mono print/ collage background. In the photo above you can see I’ve tried to show how the rainbow rolled effect might work, and how it would sit against either a coloured background or paper collaged background. This was the point I had reached when I managed to get an opportunity to photograph the inside of the butchers.

Photo’s from inside the butchers 

 

I found that taking some photo’s inside the butchers helped to clarify some details that I hadn’t seen in my initial photos from a distance. These details will help me to develop my prints for a more detailed finish.

I was particularly interested in the labelling of some of the produce. I thought these could make an interesting background mono print layer for the rainbow rolled lino cut to sit on top of. So I took a larger than A3 piece of paper and tried to draw some arrangements/ideas:

In theory the placement of these labels works well with the overall design but I knew I needed to experiment to come up with a method for executing the idea. My initial thought was to create physical versions of the labels, to then create a mono print. This is best explained through photos of the process:

For the ‘New Line’ mask I cut a card shape out and stuck sticky letter shapes on top to give a letter imprint. Quite simple really.

The label above was slightly more complex, I decided to use a thick paper and scalpel to cut layers of paper away to create the letters and the groves between the squares. This was time consuming and I’m not entirely sure it’s that effective!

I decide to ink the printing area in a sandy brown to mimic the brown paper I had in the sketchbook design. I impressed the labels I’d created into the inked area and pulled a print, I then removed these labels to reveal their imprint in the ink. This was the print I wanted as the background, and here’s the result:

It’s easy to see from this print that there’s plenty of room for improvement but I am pleased with how the ‘new line’ label came out. Obvious ways to improve this are; to get the lettering in the ‘traditional breeds’ label the right way round. I think I should remake the traditional breeds label so it’s made of raised paper areas and letters from stickers, this will make the imprint more effective. I also think adding a layer of tissue paper on top of this mono print will help smooth things and add depth to the picture overall.

Even though this background isn’t perfect I want to try placing the lino cut print layer on top of it, just to give me an idea of what that might look like. It’s worth mentioning that I have cut my lino ready, here’s a photo: