Friday 21 September 2012

'Stanley Kubrick' print session

Here are some session photos from yesterday when I attempted to print my Stanley Kubrick linocut with some notes more for my reference than anything else but feel free to leave helpful comments. It didn't go as well as I hoped but I did learn some important lessons along the way.  I think.

I used cheap block-printing ink (Ocaldo) which may have been my first mistake.  Rolling it evenly and getting decent coverage was an art in itself - too much ink mean the print lost definition - too little ink meant the print was a bit patchy/distressed.
























I was a little careless when rolling the ink onto the lino initially which meant I inked the border which I didn't want to show on the finished print.  I'd purposely left a border thinking that it would stop the roller from dropping into the cut areas of the lino when rolling ink onto it but what actually happened was the frame created creases in the print paper from applying so much pressure with the spoon.  I think I probably need to remove the border altogether and be more concise when rolling ink onto the lino, perhaps even cut the lino quite tightly around the artwork.




















The ink sticks quite nicely to the paper so it was quite easy to gently pull the paper off the lino and see if I needed to apply more pressure to certain areas.  I thought this would cause registration issues but it didn't appear to.


Below is one of the better prints.  It's possible a little too heavily inked but at least the coverage is better.



So what did I learn?  I think I may need to use better ink, I need to get a proper baren and perhaps even a cheap press.  Any ideas if this one is any good?  Also I need to stop being such a control freak/so anal and recognise that people actually like linocut prints for their hand-made faults.  

'Our Stanley' will be available to buy very soon!

3 comments:

Melanie Wickham said...

Looks pretty good in web vision!

You can get some really great inks that are water based but print like oil based too if you are wanting to stick with water based, normally in tubs rather than tubes - the ink can make a massive difference to the print, as can the paper, we all have our favourites!

Mat Pringle said...

Thanks Melanie! What inks do you recommend specifically?

karumina said...

Me gusta! Nunca he probado el grabado... ¿hiciste tĂș el tallado en la madera?