Linoleum Printing. I Hope.

In my middle school classroom I inherited lino. printmaking supplies.  I resisted learning this art in school because, of course, I was going to be a painter, right?  Sigh... I just can't stand to see all of those beautiful tools and materials sit and languish.  Besides, the kids will probably love it. There might be a future printmaker in the bunch.  Guess who's learning to cut linoleum?  The lesson here is never to pass up learning something cool, folks.  You just never know.

The building that inspired the painting "Old Patches."  This old place got under my skin.  

The first step is finding the right image.  Did I choose a simple turtle or celtic design?  Of course not.  I spent an afternoon going through my photos, increasing their value contrasts and converting them to black and white.  There were simple ones, of course, but I chose this one.  In my defense, it looked pretty straightforward on the computer screen.  It was only after I started drawing the tree branches and deciding where they should be dark and light that I began to see just what a fun idea this was.  Yep, that's me.  Jump right into the deep end.  Then remember I haven't had lessons.

Drawn onto the linoleum, ready to begin cutting.  Of course I've already made the first mistake; I didn't make it a reversal of the photo, it'll print backwards.  Good thing I didn't add words!! 

This process seems to require thinking from light to dark, then removing the light areas first.  The watercolor painting process is similar, so I am hopeful that it will aid me here.  To tell the truth, I'm pretty excited to try this whole process.  If I can pull one or two of these off I might even try the reduction process where I can use more than one color.  If not, I promise I'll try a cute turtle, and I hate 'cute.'  So here we go, off on a new tangent.  Still not using the gouache, but planning to go back to it any day now!  Yeah.

Thanks for stopping by!  Alice