Linoleum 2 color print student examples

Student Example #1

I was introduced this topic by Mr Laurence as Linoleum printing. I did not know what that meant in the first lesson. I was told to use this kind of material which felt like rubber. I was first mentioned to choose an animal or something that can be carved.

During my second lesson, I thought of choosing a macaw bird as its details were kind of interesting to me. So I asked Mr Laurence what do I do after I chose my animal and he said to use tracing paper to trace the silhouette and then transfer the silhouette onto the Linoleum. This was kind of challenging as when I was retracing the silhouette from the tracing paper on the Linoleum, it did not really show the lines. Then I had to render the lines without using the tracing paper. He then said to be careful and draw the details of the bird on the other side of the Linoleum. He also said that when you flip the Linoleum, make sure that you flip it the correct way like you don't turn it upside down and flip it. I understood what he meant by that so I then drew in the details of the bird on the tracing paper and re-traced it onto the linoleum. That didn't work either so I drew the details directly onto the Linoleum. During this lesson, I wanted to finish carving the rest at home so I asked Mr Laurence if I could take it home and finish carving it and bring it back the next lesson for printing and he allowed me.

On my third lesson, I asked Mr Lawrence what I had to do after I drew the details onto the Linoleum, and he said that I have to use a blue or black marker to trace the silhouette and the details of the bird. After that, I had to use a carving tool to carve out the edges of the silhouette as you can see from figure 1. I carved out the areas near the silhouette and I carved them quite deep so I can use a roller to then add paint to it later on.

When I finished carving out this side, I then started to carve the detailed side. I asked Mr Lawrence if I carved it deeply enough and he said it's enough and he said to the same thing for the detailed side but then I also had to carve out the white spaces in between the blue lines (see fig 2). This was a bit difficult as the thickness of the carving piece was really big. I asked Mr Lawrence how I could carve out such small details if there is such a big carving piece. He told me that I had to unscrew the bottom of the carving tool which had smaller pieces that I could use to carve out the Linoleum. This took about an extra lesson (lesson 4) to carve both the silhouette and also the detailed side.

During my fifth lesson, I wanted to start adding paint and the I did this was that I had to paint using a roller and add a lighter colour to the silhouette side and a darker colour on the detailed side. I started off by using pink. I got a palette knife, the pink paint, and a palette to put the paint on. I used a palette knife to put a bit of paint and got the roller and started to roll all the way till all the sides of the roller were pink. After this, I rolled this pink paint on the silhouette side of the linoleum and I had to get a piece of white paper. I needed to put this on a board that had thick edges looking like a right-angle board.

I realised that I had to place my linoleum at the corners of the right-angled board and place the paper onto the linoleum with the paper cornering the right-angle. I pressed the paper gently onto the linoleum and pressed the sides of the linoleum and firmly pressed it to get the print of the first side. Before starting the other side, I had to wash off the linoleum with water and soap and dry it with a napkin so it does not leave a mark on the table and so I can add different paint on this side and on the other side. I also had to wash the palette with the paint remaining and the roller. After this, I repeated this same process but using brown as a darker colour. For this side, I messed it up as I forgot to corner the paper to the edges of the board for it to come out proper. As you can see from figure 3, it looks shifted as I did not really do this print well. I started to repeat this same process. As a result, I made 2 more during this lesson (see fig 4 and 5). 

The challenging part was that I forgot sometimes which side to put the paper on as I put paint on both sides and did not wash off the other side. The problem was that I was supposed to finish it during this lesson, but then one lesson, I left the linoleum at home so I had to start with the next topic.

Overall, I really liked this topic as I learned a lot. For example, I didn't know what Linoleum or how beautiful prints like these are used from linoleum. There were a lot of challenges that I faced when working on this topic in and outside of school. I love all of my printings but one of the ones I really love is 2nd (pink and purple) and last print (red and black print). I could really improve on the 1st and 3rd print. For the 4th print, I think the colours were not good that I chose. But I think I did a good job overall for this topic.

Student Example #2

For our linoleum printing project, the first task we had to do was chose an image of a bird or fish to carve into our linoleum so the printing process would result in a picture of that animal. Out of the various options, I chose the owl that you can see in the top left-hand corner of this post. I chose it because the owl looked different than the other bird and fish selections and I pictured my end result to look nice because of the intricate detail of the image.

After I had done that, I took a sheet of tracing paper and placed it on top of the printed photo so I could trace the outline of the bird onto the sheet with a B pencil. The B pencil is required so that the graphite could transfer onto the linoleum. Once I had done that, I took a block of linoleum and placed the side of the tracing paper that had the graphite on it down on the linoleum. Then on the other side of the tracing paper, I re-outlined the image so that the graphite pressing on the linoleum would transfer the silhouette.

Next, I took the tracing paper once again and returned to the original side. I then placed it over the printed image again so that this time, I could draw out the fine details of the bird. After I had done this, I once again placed the tracing paper, graphite side down, onto the other side of the linoleum. From there I simply rubbed my B pencil all over the back of the tracing paper to transfer the lead onto the linoleum block. In the second image above, you can see the drawing of the owl on the tracing paper as well as the pencil marks that lead to the transferring of the image.

Once I had completed those steps, I had a block of linoleum, one side with simply the outline of the bird, and the other side with the entire image of the owl. From there I took a carving tool and began to carve out a layer of linoleum excluding the silhouette of the bird. You can see can the silhouette carved side of the linoleum in the third image above.

Next, I flipped over the linoleum block and repeated the same steps as the other side. Except this time, I continued to carve the details of the owl such as the feathers and facial features to result in a detailed print later on. All the parts of the linoleum that wasn't carved would later be the sections that press the ink onto the paper. In the fourth image above, you can see a picture of the detailed linoleum carved side. However, the linoleum looks blue because I took the picture after the blue ink dyed the block.

From there, I was almost done. We needed to print at least four images, and after doing around 6 prints, I chose from my favorite ones that you can see above. My first print was a purple on top of pink print. I started out by taking a piece of paper and wrote my name in the bottom right-hand corner. I then took a brayer and placed some red and white ink onto a palette. With the brayer, I mixed the ink and got an even layer of ink on the brayer. I then rolled the brayer over the silhouette side of the linoleum. Once there was an even layer of ink on the block I placed the linoleum on the wooden holder and then put my piece of paper over the linoleum so that the edges of the paper were pressed against the edges of the holder. I did this so that when I added the detailed side print, I could place the paper in the same place so that the two prints aligned. Then I pressed my palm against the paper to fully press the ink onto the paper.

Once I had the pink silhouette on my paper, I washed off the linoleum block and continued. I took a different palette to place the purple ink on and used a different brayer to apply the ink on the detailed carved side of the linoleum. I then continued to go back to the wooden holder in the same position as before and once again placed the paper on the linoleum. I then rubbed my palm around the paper to make sure the ink transferred from the linoleum to the paper properly. Once I pulled back the paper, it revealed my first print as you can see above. Afterward, I washed off my linoleum block, placed my print on the drying rack, and repeated these steps a few more times to print the other images as you can see above.

During this process, I think my strengths were accurately carving the linoleum and my first print. The carving did take a while to do, but in the end, I think that the face of the owl especially turned out really well and detailed and led to some good prints. I am also very proud of my first print. The way that the light pink and the deep purple contrast really emphasizes all the details of the print and the colors look very nice and vibrant against each other.

A weakness in this project was the aligning of the prints. The first print came out great, however, after that, I messed up the alignment of the silhouettes and details of the other prints. Though it does not make a huge difference, I think if I prevented this, it could have improved my prints. However, overall I am happy with the way my prints came out.