I started off by brushing down each print with an old toothbrush to get the dust and trimmings off the plates. Any dust on the roller is a nightmare.
Suicide print, final colour
1. At first I wanted to use a clean solid blue to print on top of the slightly creamy light blue. I squeezed out some blue and looked at the colour and realised that it wasn't the contrast I wanted. So I mixed in just a smidgen of black which created a darker blue.
2. I feel it went well:
The main problem was achieving perfect registration – in other words, lining the plate up perfectly with the print. On a positive note, the colour went on well.
Here I am, wiping excess ink off the plate (in the non-printing areas) just before printing:
With the tube prints – even though they might come across as similar, they are different experiences to print.
The plate with the people dug out has a far greater surface area for ink so it was important to get enough ink on the top of the design. The first attempt didn't come out too well even though I really layered the ink. Tried it again and it worked a little better but still not sure what the problem was.
There are technical difficulties with printing using an old (1872) press. Getting the right pressure across all areas of the linocut is hard.
The plate with the people printed and the background dug out went better; there was less surface area, so therefore it was easier to print. I was really pleased how this turned out. A little patchy in the bottom left-hand corner for a couple, but I soon realised that applying more ink and turning the plate upside-down helped matters.
This is the second plate (the one that was easier to print) inked and on the press:
Lessons to learn, today
- Clean the plate properly.
- Make sure the print is properly lined up
- Make sure there is enough ink on the plate
- Make sure when I am digging out the lino I dig out enough so I don't get little bits of ink showing up in the spaces.
