Block Printing Tutorial, Part II

The exciting part of block print making is...the printing! You've painstakingly cut away your design and now you're ready to see what your design actually looks like.

Start by covering your work surface with newspapers or plastic, for easy clean up. Put a little dollop of ink on a glass palate (a glass baking/casserole/pie dish works fine, too)— I recommend using water-based printing ink, as it is completely washable and non-toxic. Be careful here, and start with less ink than you think you'd need—a little goes a long way. Roll the brayer through the ink in different directions. Try to spread a thin, even layer of ink on the glass. Next, using steady pressure, roll the brayer over your linoleum, first back and forth, then side to side. Be sure to cover right to the edges and corners of your design.

Next move the linoleum to a clean work surface, ink side up, and place the paper over it. Take an extra moment to line the paper up square with your print before you lay it down.

Gently rub the paper with your hand or, if you have an extra, clean brayer, use that (I bet a rolling pin would be great for this job). Keep your hand flat when rubbing, so you don't press down into the cuts of the design and end up printing something you didn't want (ink can sometimes get into the depressions).

Carefully lift the paper off, pulling from one side. You can take a peek at the print before you lift it off completely, and see if there are any areas that could use a little more rubbing.

The amount of ink you use makes a significant difference in the quality of the print (as shown above), so experiment until you get the look you want.

Now that you have your first print, you can see if there is anything you want to change—raised areas to remove, shapes to refine, design elements or details to add.

Yay, a print! Make as many as you want. Create a custom set of cards as a gift, make tiny prints and use them like stamps. Explore multi-color printing, or try embellishing your black-ink prints with colored pencil. Make limited-edition prints and give them to friends (tell 'em they'll be worth money someday when you are a famous block-print artist).

Useful info I forgot to include in my Block Printing Part I post: Because the linoleum is hard and can be difficult to cut away, heating it up will make it more pliable, and much easier to remove. Toss it in the microwave for 10 seconds, blow a hot hair dryer on it for a minute, or place it in the sun for a while before you start.

Block Printing Tutorial: Part I

I decided to put together a block printing how-to, after getting lots of comments and emails from people expressing interest. It's a cinch to get into, as it requires only a bit of equipment to begin with. Block printing is a fascinating technique that presents new artistic opportunities to explore. Getting to the final product is a unique process that moves from sculptural to two-dimensional.

You'll need a linoleum cutting tool and some cutting tips, a few pieces of linoleum, a brayer, and some block printing ink. I found a great starter kit, which includes everything you need, here.

Draw your image directly onto the piece of linoleum. Start removing the material, little by little, always pulling away from the item you are carving, and towards your body. Keep the fingers of the other hand clear of the path of the cutter, as it can slip. Rotate the linoleum as necessary to make this easier.

The linoleum can sometimes be tricky to remove, but the way the tool is held is important and the process will go much smoother if you do it right. Hold the cutter so that the ball of the handle rests in your palm, and use your pointer finger to help guide and control the tool. Hold the tool at only a slight angle and pull gently. If you have the correct angle, you will feel the cutter doing the work and you won't have to pull so hard. It will take some time to get a feel for this. Keep a gentle grip on the cutter. It's easy to find yourself holding the cutter too tight which will result in deep cuts and a sore, tired hand.

A word about words: keep in mind that any words you include need to be carved in mirror image (see previous images), lest you end up with this.

Continue to remove the material, using a variation of cutting tips as needed to get the desired image. Explore texture and negative space, as well as composition and design, and have fun!

Linoleum pieces can also be purchased mounted on wood, and I find that the mounted pieces are a little easier for the kids to use—it's more for them to hold onto as they carve. Alternatively, you can mount a piece of linoleum onto wood yourself with some contact cement.

That's the cutting/carving portion of block printing in a nutshell. My next post will describe the inking and printing process.