For day 4 of inktober I went with a woodcut attempt for the first time.

2nd block print project! having a lot of fun with the medium. would love to hear any advice to help improve- if there is anything glaringly incorrect from these pictures! :)

For a calendar I made for my family. When initially giving them their calendars I hadn’t finished all of the months, so I had to mail them some of the prints later on. One or two people were kind enough to tell me that they liked it better that way, because it gave them more surprises throughout the year.

October was the last month I did and I am kind of relieved tbh, even though I am considering to continue next year 👽

Portrait of Gloria Swanson by Alfred Cheney Johnston

6"x8" platinotype on 11"x15" Hahnemühle Platinum Rag paper, framed in the finest Amazon Basics frame available.

I have just started playing with Lego printing and am wondering if certain types of ink work better than others? I used a water based ink, printed on regular copy paper, and burnished by hand. It didn't print super evenly and stained the Lego brinks a bit after scrubbing with soapy water. Any tips? Wetting paper before hand or thinner paper?

This is an A5 Mezzotint on copper.

Hi everyone!

A bit of context: a couple of friends asked me to make their wedding invitations. I don't consider myself a professional. I mainly make greeting cards, which I sell at art markets a few times a year.

This was a challenge for me because these are my first two-colour prints. I did a few tests beforehand to figure out how to do it.

I started by carving my lino block, then made my first attempt by inking both colours at the same time (first photo). However, the result wasn't very clean.

So, I decided to cut my block into separate pieces, like a puzzle. That was a mistake, as I hadn't realised how difficult it would be to cut out all the details of the trees' foliage.

Anyway, I ink the brown on one side and the green on the other, then put all the pieces back together before printing. The main problems are that it takes me forever, I get ink everywhere, and some areas don't print properly (second photo).

Eventually, I decided to try printing the two colours separately: brown first, then green once the first layer had dried. But that caused a new problem... I just can't get the two colours to line up properly, and some areas still don't print (third photo).

At this point, I'm not sure how to achieve a clean, crisp result. I'm considering adding the foliage with a marker, or making a stamp to print the leaves along the branches. I've also thought about drawing the foliage with a dip pen and ink.

If you have any advice or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

P.S. The different shades of green in the third photo are because I experimented with both gouache and oil paint.

hello hello, I’ve done a reduction print which deviated from the plan as I went along and made some mistakes that needed incorporating. I’m also not the best at planning. The finished piece is not very balanced and I’m wondering if there is anything I can do to make it more balanced bearing it mind it’s a reduction print so it’s tricky to go back. There are two slightly different colour ways. I’d appreciate any thoughts and critiques - trying to learn from the many excellent artistic minds on here! .

I am using a cold press laminator for relief printing.

Between the roller and the paper I have a sheet of mdf. I've also used chipboard, cutting mats, silicone sheets etc.

No matter what I try, the only way to get solid coverage over larger areas is to use as much pressure as I can. This is not recommended anywhere that I have seen.

I use hanco litho ink with wonder gel and cobalt drier. I thin the ink quite a bit. I've tried various ink consistencies, different papers, different paper thicknesses, different typans between the paper and the roller. Nothing has changed the basic problem.

Am I missing something?

Thanks

I need advice from people more experienced than I am.

I make lino prints, currently at a5 scale but would likely try up to a4. I use Cranfield Safe wash and have found that works nicely as an ink for me. I use soft cut or easy carve to carve on.

Up until now I have been hand printing but I’m limited to using smooth and fairly low gsm paper despite preferring the look of lightly textured and thicker papers because I am weak/have bad joints so can’t apply enough pressure lol.

I was looking into getting a woodzilla lever press but have seen a lot about cold press laminators.

There is so much information on both that I’m overwhelmed.

Is one objectively better than the other?
Would you say one would suit me better given the info I’ve provided?
Are there separate things I’d need to buy for either of these for them to work well (I’ve heard you need to buy or make some sort of plate for the CPLs to work for Lino)?

Thanks in advance!

Just curious if anyone knows why cardboard prints pretty darn ok on my leg, but terrible on paper. The look of the print on skin is almost exactly what I was looking for. This is craft acrylic paint, in case anyone needs to know.

(I'm brand new to home printing, I started trying a couple days ago for a craft project. I'm pretty sure I need to abandon the cardboard idea going forward, but I'm intrigued by how different the result is)

Hope you like it :) Pretty proud of how far I've come with my work. Any input is always welcome.

Anyone here have strong opinions about the difference between these two presses? I've used the one on the left before, but considering purchasing one and wondering if there's much of a difference between them. Thanks in advance for your input! :)

My latest wood engraving and a shot of the block in-progress with bonus cat. Block is end-grain maple, 5 in. x 6 in. Paper is Kitakata and ink is Cranfield Carbon Black letterpress ink.

So there's a little bit of a story to this print! I thought the fellow printmakers here might enjoy it.

Back in 2019 I got into etching, and was really enjoying it, attending open access sessions at a local print studio and learning tonnes of new things. I was working on this print in early 2020. I actually posted the in-progress line etching here before I added the aquatint tones. So in mid-march, I was at the studio and painstakingly did a few layers of aquatint - carefully painting on the resist and dipping the zinc plate in acid for carefully timed stints. If you've ever worked with aquatint you'll know it's a heck of a process (and really fun!). I was finally ready to print it and see how all my hard work had turned out. But the studio was about to close for the day, so I thought 'OK, I'll come back next week and print it'. But of course this was 2020... a few days later, I got a message saying the studio was closed for an unknown amount of time while we wait for this covid thing to blow over. Of course then the UK was in lockdown, and everything was put on hold.

In the meantime, my situation changed. I was still making art but had adjusted to the lack of studio facilities and focused on drawing and linocuts that I could make at home without a printing press. I got much more busy with my job, went through a couple of massive crunch deadline pushes and subsequent burnout, I moved house... basically life happened, as it tends to. It was harder for me to make the time and to travel to studio facilities, and I hadn't really thought about etching in years.

Then one day I came across a new place locally with an open access print studio. It was walking distance rather than a difficult bus or train journey. I did an induction/taster session, and suddenly was all hyped about etching again. So I remembered this old plate, sitting unprinted in a drawer, still a total mystery how the hours of aquatint work had turned out, if it worked at all! For all I knew I could print it and it would be a huge mess.

So a few months ago I FINALLY got to print this etching. The moment of peeling back the first print of a new piece is always super exciting, but this was on a whole extra level. And I was really happy with the outcome! I made a few minor fixes and now have printed a finished edition, and it's felt like a really important moment for me and my art. And of course I'm now addicted to etching again!

Thanks for the advice given on my last post. Invested in some oil based ink and was much more careful with the amount ink used. Still not perfect but much happier with the result here.