Printmaking — Linocut & Woodblock

This workbook turns the course into studio practice. Each section pairs hands-on carving and printing exercises with planning worksheets and check-off lists so you move deliberately from a blank block to a documented edition. Use the templates to record colour recipes, registration plans, and your edition log — the habits that separate a one-off experiment from a repeatable practice.

Assemble your kit, prove your tools are sharp, and learn to see images as positive and negative shapes.

Hone your V-tool and one U-gouge on a stone or wet-and-dry paper, strop them, then make a 'mark library' on a scrap lino offcut: carve a row of each cut and note how each tool behaves.

Take a simple high-contrast photo (a leaf, a mug, a face in strong light). Using a black marker, fill in ONLY the areas that will print as solid ink, leaving white everything that will be carved away. Do not draw outlines — work in masses.

List what you own and what you still need before your first edition, with a rough cost for each gap.

Plan a print that respects the relief inversion, transfer it accurately, and carve it with control.

Plan one print before you touch a tool. If working in colour, fill one copy of the layer rows per colour, light to dark.

Mirror your design (flip digitally or trace and turn over), transfer it to the block by graphite or toner-transfer, ink the lines with permanent marker, then shade every area you will carve away in a contrasting colour.

Carve your block in the disciplined order: V-trench just outside every kept line, then clear waste with U-gouges, then flatten floors with the chisel. Pull a rough proof before declaring it finished.

Roll an even ink film, build a registration system, and pull strong prints by hand or press.

Roll out ink on the slab and adjust it until you hear the soft hiss and see an orange-peel texture. Pull three test prints: one deliberately under-inked, one correct, one deliberately over-inked. Keep all three labelled.

Choose and document a registration system before printing any colour, then test it on scrap.

Print five sheets by baren or spoon, re-charging the brayer identically each time. Before lifting each sheet, peel back one corner in register to check coverage and rub more where grey.

Pull a documented edition, fix faults at their source, and present and preserve the work.

Decide a small edition size (e.g. 10), print 20–30 percent extra, select against a BAT proof, then pencil-sign and number the accepted prints in the bottom margin.

For each fault you meet, record the symptom, the variable you suspect (ink film, pressure, or block), and the fix you applied.

Window-mat or float-mount one finished print on acid-free board, hinged at the top only, and photograph it straight-on in even light for your portfolio.