I thought I'd take a moment to give y'all a little insight into my process. As an illustrator, I am trained in many different techniques and can do everything from watercolor to pencil to oil to digital and so on and so forth. However, I have recently been working primarily in linocut and collage.
For those of you who don't know, linocut is a printmaking process. It is referred to as a "relief" process because I start with a block of linoleum and carve away everything that is meant to be white and leave only what I want to be in the image. Here are some examples of linoleum blocks I have carved recently:
I then ink the linoleum and put paper on top and use a funky tool I bought at the art supply store to smooth it out because I don't have a press. Here are my tools, which have become my lifeline:
When I make a linocut that isn't just black and white, it's called a reductive print. You start by carving out everything you want to be white. You then ink it in your first color, let's say yellow. Then you carve out everything you want to be yellow in the final image and ink the linoleum block in your second color (green) then carve away everything you want to be green, etc etc etc. Fun, right?
Here are all of the linoleum blocks I carved just this week:
I really enjoy this technique. It is something I first started when I was in college when I was taking printmaking courses. However, once I got to graduate school I put it aside and didn't immediately think that linocut "counted" as illustration. My, oh, my was I wrong. I was encouraged to work this way after someone saw a print of mine from college, and the rest is history.
While I like this technique, the one thing I don't like is the mess! My apartment is covered in tiny pieces linoleum. No matter how often I vacuum I can't ever seem to get it all.
For those of you who don't know, linocut is a printmaking process. It is referred to as a "relief" process because I start with a block of linoleum and carve away everything that is meant to be white and leave only what I want to be in the image. Here are some examples of linoleum blocks I have carved recently:
I then ink the linoleum and put paper on top and use a funky tool I bought at the art supply store to smooth it out because I don't have a press. Here are my tools, which have become my lifeline:
When I make a linocut that isn't just black and white, it's called a reductive print. You start by carving out everything you want to be white. You then ink it in your first color, let's say yellow. Then you carve out everything you want to be yellow in the final image and ink the linoleum block in your second color (green) then carve away everything you want to be green, etc etc etc. Fun, right?
Here are all of the linoleum blocks I carved just this week:
I really enjoy this technique. It is something I first started when I was in college when I was taking printmaking courses. However, once I got to graduate school I put it aside and didn't immediately think that linocut "counted" as illustration. My, oh, my was I wrong. I was encouraged to work this way after someone saw a print of mine from college, and the rest is history.
While I like this technique, the one thing I don't like is the mess! My apartment is covered in tiny pieces linoleum. No matter how often I vacuum I can't ever seem to get it all.
Well, that's all for now! I thought I'd give a little glimpse into my working world. Check back for new work soon. I've got some projects due at the end of the week and will post then when they are finished.
xoxo
This is such a great post!
ReplyDelete