Going multicoloured with multi-block linocut prints

With Spring on the way, my thoughts have recently turned to brightness and colour and how much I love to work with them in my art…

As a printmaker who uses the linocut process a lot in the creation of my artworks, bright and vibrant colours don’t always feature in my palette – but recently I have made some colourful prints using the multi-block printing technique. My “Green Woodpecker on the Hill” print is one such example – and I thought would be a nice topic to share with you for this month’s blog post!

I often get asked by people how I manage to create a linocut print which is seemingly so complex and full of different colours – but in fact, this print is made by printing just 3 separate colour blocks, one on top of the other. Here’s how I do it:

The first thing I do is to carve the “key block” for my design. This block will be printed in the darkest colour and will be printed last, over the other two, lighter coloured blocks in the design. The key block is the most detailed one and also the one that will “pull the whole image together” once it is printed on top of the lighter colours. The key block is also a very important part of the process, since the design from this block is printed onto the other lino blocks, to inform the carving for each of the other colours in the print.

Once I have finished carving the key block, I ink it up with black (or a similar, very dark colour) oil-based ink and make a print onto a sheet of tracing paper. I then (very carefully!) place the wet print face down onto a fresh piece of lino which is exactly the same size as the key block, making sure the edges of the print correspond accurately to the edges of the lino block. These steps are repeated for each colour block I want to carve for the print, and they ensure that I have a transfer of the design on each block, which are all identical to each other. Once the ink on each block is dry(ish), I can go ahead and carve out any parts of the lino which I don’t want to print with that particular colour. If that all sounds complicated – don’t worry! In project 8 of my new book “Nature Imprinted“, I cover the whole process of creating a multi-block linocut print in great detail, with step-by-step instructions!

Once all carving is completed on the separate colour blocks, I thoroughly clean all remaining traces of dark ink off of each block using “Zest It” printmakers’ cleaner – a truly game-changing product! And now, we are ready to print our first proofs!

My Woodpecker print is made from four colours, plus the white of the paper it’s printed on: light green, bright scarlet, orangey-red and a very dark green for the top colour. Before any printing can begin though, I need to set up my registration. This ensures that all blocks are placed in precisely the same position for printing, and also that the placing of each sheet of paper in the edition is identical for each block. To help me here, I make a simple “jig” from thick card and use the indispensable “Ternes Burton” clip system for positioning the sheets of paper. Again, the registration process is covered in full detail in project 8 of “Nature Imprinted“.

Once my registration is set up and I’ve prepared some sheets of my favourite Somerset Satin 300gsm paper for the edition, and also carefully hand-mixed all of my colours, proofing can begin! I start by printing the palest colour block, which is the light green. As well as rolling the green ink onto the block, I am also applying my bright scarlet ink with a cotton bud to the crown area of the woodpecker. Doing this causes it to take a little longer inking up the block – but that flash of scarlet really is essential to include, because it’s such a striking feature of this stunning bird. Once I’ve inked up the block as carefully and evenly as I can, I place it in the jig on the press and clip the first sheet of paper in position, before letting it drop down onto the block and pulling a print. Happy with the first print I’ve made, I continue to ink-print-repeat for all remaining sheets and leave them to dry thoroughly for 2-3 days, before printing the next colour.

The next colour I print is the orangey-red for some of the oak leaves. My technique here is a little different, as I’m not mixing a colour in my usual Caligo Safe Wash oil-based inks for this, but using my orangey-red Versafine “Claire” archival ink pad! Cheating, you may ask? Not really, I say – because it gives me the motley, slightly translucent overlay for the the leaves that I’m after. I simply dab the pad directly onto the carved leaves, “blot” lightly with a piece of computer paper, place the block into the jig, clip-and-drop one of my light green and red prints, before rubbing over the back of the leaf areas with one of my barons (no press required for this step!). Lift the print up and hey presto! some recognisable oak-shaped leaf impressions have joined the composition – it’s starting to take shape! Apart from no-mess, little clearing up and general ease-of-use, the great thing about Versafine inks is that they dry in a matter of minutes – so no waiting a further 2-3 days before printing the next and final colour! 🙂

Now then, for the final printed colour layer – which really does bring the whole design together in spectacular fashion! From a rather incomplete and (if I’m honest) slightly off-putting expanse of a vaguely “hi-viz” green, the printing of this final key block in the deepest of hand-mixed dark greens (black was much too “dead” and harsh for this one) – and the print is transformed into a richly-coloured, quite complex and vibrant image of my beloved Green Woodpecker, which I spotted on that early autumn morning, as I walked along the bottom of Rayleigh Mount…

“Green Woodpecker on the Hill” is available on my website as a limited edition of 20 original handmade linocut prints. I also have limited editions of smaller (A4) sized Giclee prints of this design available – either as an unframed print, or framed and ready to hang, in a lovely quality oak frame.