Layer 8

I just finished adding a darker value to my little girdled figure. (The print is only 3.5" X 3.5".) The image has a impressionistic, painterly quality to it but at this point I'm contemplating creating a second plate to add dark outlines. I'll let it sit for awhile before I call it finished.

I did however accomplish what I set out to do; that is just have fun with the process, move along and not worry about the outcome. A few more of these exercises wouldn't hurt.

Getting Started

This is the set up I decided to use. Since I'll be doing a reduction print, cutting away and printing as I go along, I need to have a good registration system. I decided to employ the same system I use when doing a serigraph.

I punched "dots" out of a scrap of matt board, glued them to another strip of matt board and then taped the unit to my linoleum. Next I punched holes in my paper - in this case Arches 88 - to correspond to the dots on my linoleum.

A window was cut out of a piece of mylar to act as a stencil as I inked the image area.

Playing Around

I haven't done a linoleum print in awhile. It was my intention to do something different, just have some fun with the process and not worry about the outcome; something that I'm inclined to do. I'm constantly slowed down by my propensity to focus on the message and perfect execution of a print. I tend to toss out prints that don't meet my high expectations. My goal is to loosen up, throw caution to the wind and focus more on the journey and less on the destination. We'll see how this goes.