printing process...

the bus print project is ongoing. it's got a bit stalled up of late. i've four trips awaiting my attention right now - they've been on the backburner while i've worked on other, paying jobs and then been away over easter [more about that later, maybe]

the thinking behind the project was to learn a new skill, and to make sure that i'm drawing stuff regularly, and not just illustrating [if that makes sense!]

so the stuff i'm producing reflects that i guess - it's not all great, and in the finished prints you can clearly see some of the struggles with the process that i'm having [eg finding the best paper to use, working out how to ink up the lino so that you get nice flat areas and no splotchiness* at the edges, cutting outlines with a knife vs cutting them with a lino tool... etc etc]
i'm hoping that the imperfections are part of their charm :-)

anyhow, above is a photo of the desk i'm printing at.
amongst the general clutter of bits of tissue, pencils, brushes, masking tape and paint are all the things i'm using to make the prints...
1. coffee [very important]
2. hot water bottle [for warming lino up during the cutting bit of the process]
3. a thing i cobbled together to enable me to line up the lino on the current print [my first stab at two-colour printing]
4. the cut lino block
5 & 6. lino cutter and tools [cheap ones, but they work ok]
7. roller for pressing the paper onto the inked-up lino
8. spoon, also for rubbing the paper onto the block
9. roller for applying the ink to the block
10. stuff that converts acrylic paint into printing ink. not quite got the hang of it yet :-)
11. acrylic paint
12. black printing ink [water based]
13. ink made from acrylic paints and (10.) on a tile for rolling up [but i made waaay too much]
14. ink rolled ready for the block

an important bit of kit that you can't see here is the cd player. i've discovered that the best music to print to is the fall and bloc party. turned up quite loud.
[sparklehorse and mark hollis and brian eno's music for airports were all fairly disastrous choices - too soothing and relaxing...]

and here are the prints layers drying in readiness for a second print [the black layer, once i've cut away a bit more of the block]
i've done more than the usual thirteen of this one, because i'm pretty sure i'll mess a few up adding the black layer, and once i've re-cut the block to do that, there's no going back...




*it's a technical term... :-)