Multicolour linocut printing - step 1

Hi fellow steemians.

Two weeks ago I mentioned that I thought about writing a series of "articles" on the linocut printing process, specifically multicolour printing. So here it is ...

In this case I started with a picture from the internet that I won't display here (copyright). The big decision you always have to make before you start cutting is how many colours you are going to use. Unlike painting, linocut printing doesn't allow you endless subtleties in colour although there are real artists who use more than ten colours to achieve near photographic precision. Anyway, that was not my goal. The picture shows a plaice and I decided to print three colours - orange (for the spots) and two types of green. Next, you have to decide on the order in which you are going to print. Usually you start with the lightest colour and end with the darkest but it's not obligatory. Nothing is in art anyway. My order of choice is: orange, light green, dark green.

I made a drawing and transferred it to tracing paper clearly indicating the borders of each colour. You can use the tracing paper to make sure your drawing will end up as a print in the same orientation! The printing process from linoleum to paper always gives the mirror image! That's no big deal in general apart from the times orientation is really important or when you print text. I used the tracing paper drawing, carbon paper, a pencil and permanent marker to transfer the drawing to the soft-cut linoleum. Traditional linoleum is easier to draw on than the soft-cut variety but it is also much harder to cut and more difficult to clean. Soft-cut linoleum is not so easy to draw on (not even with a marker) and gives problems with some inks. However, when you "clean" the surface with white spirit or something similar, the ink sticks to the surface very well. AND ... soft-cut linoleum is so much easier to cut!

Anyway, this is the first step. Below you can see images of the drawing on tracing paper and on the linoleum.