Linoleum refers to a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil [linoxyn], pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the material.
Now that you have a bit of background of what linoleum is, it'll be easier to explain what I did for this project. For this project of either sculpture or stop motion, I was torn between these two, but I figured that a linocut would have to do and it was less time consuming. First off, linocuts are very similar to woodcuts. It is a printing method using a sheet of linoleum, in which a subtractive cutting method is used to take away the parts of linoleum where you want to leave the white of the page, and keep the parts you want to be inked! In the result you have a linocut that can reproduce the same image over and over again. Every linocut starts with a blank piece of linolium and a sketch pad with a pencil. With any sort of original print an artist creates a drawing they wish to have on the linoleum. You can label the parts of the sketch so they know what parts to shave off or to keep, make the cuts deeper or more shallow. Once you have the drawing completed to how you like, [there are many ways to transfer your image onto your block] I used transfer paper since I felt that was the easiest option. So, you have your image on your block now, and can see faint lines of your drawing, this is when you take out your linoleum knife [a fine pointed V for sharp little lines and a wider scoop to remove larger areas.] This is also when the labeling of where to cut on your sketch earlier comes in handy, because cutting a block is definitely a one-way street so once it's cut, it's gone! You've got to be pretty confident about what you want. Once the block is cut, you're ready to print. A slab of ink is rolled onto a smooth surface so you can then roll it onto the linocut. There is no set amount of ink to put on the linocut, it's all about ones perception of it. Once the ink is on, flip it onto a piece of paper, ink touching the paper and then 'massaging' the back of the linocut to make sure everything is being printed on correctly. It doesn't take long, so once you feel its time to take it off the paper [10-15 seconds] lift is up, and you have your linocut! I think that linoleum is a unique way to make an image, in that your visual vocabulary is limited to strictly black and white, no grays that can be achieved with a pencil are possible. Without a range of values the direction of your cuts, their distance from one another and the width of the lines becomes extremely important. I enjoy the challenge of working quite small as it magnifies and celebrates the inherent difficulties of this form of image making. |