Rook what I made

I’m not very arty, but every now and then I see something and think “that looks achievable, I could probably do that”. I do a bit of sketching, I like drawing birds in particular and have seen some amazing printing recently using linocut techniques. It seemed like something that was pretty straightforward and would work well with my basic sketches so I thought I’d give it a go.

One cheap linocut starter kit later and here we are. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I sketched out a rook on some paper until I was happy with the proportions etc. then sketched it out again on a slab of linoleum (seems like most people use tracing and carbon paper to copy designs across, which makes more sense). Once on the lino, you use the cutting tools to scrape away all the negative space, anywhere you want to show as white on the final print. This takes ages. The two small tools in the kit didn’t help, a bigger cutting tool would help with the larger areas.

Final step is to pour out some ink, coat a roller, then roll it over the lino block before placing some paper on top and pressing down with a wooden spoon. It’s so simple. I think I’m hooked. Need to think of some more designs now.