Yesterday I began printing the first layer of the reduction print. It didn’t go quite to plan….

I’d managed to mix a shade of green that was the colour I wanted, but when it came to printing things didn’t go smoothly. I’d made a jig to put the lino into to help with registration but I’m wondering if it wasn’t quite big enough and therefore a bit of the lino didn’t sink into it fully, and that’s what caused patches of the print to come out white…

First print with patches missing

I guess this could be an interesting effect if I’d wanted something to look rough/aged but this wasn’t what I was going for. Interestingly enough I used a large rolling pin to rub the back of the print here. I’m not sure whether I didn’t apply enough pressure or if it’s just the jig that caused the white area.

printing using hand barren to rub paper

This print came out with much more even coverage but it’s still not a good amount of ink on the page for what I’m going for, although it’s a nice subtle looking print.

Dark green print

I tried to make a different green to see what that was like, it didn’t seem so dark on the inking plate. I don’t like the shade, it’s far to dark to work with blue layered on top! But the print it’s self has much better coverage, I used a rolling pin here, and a thicker covering of ink on the lino.

Dark green print with other green’s painted on

I did a little experiment with painting a lighter green onto an area of the lino and rolling the rest of the dark green everywhere else. Whilst the quality of the ink transfer on the paper isn’t great, I like the general affect and think this could work well.