How do I draw for print.

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Lino-printing is one of the easiest ways to make black and white prints. It is also relatively easy to make colour prints too. However there is always the temptation to let the activity of making marks that “look good” take over from the lines that “do their job”. Which is why I will look at drawing from life then recreating what I see, designing and inventing ways to reproduce the view on a piece of lino. This way I benefit from invention, creativity and technique that abstraction can miss out on. Of course at a later date I can use these methods and inventions on more abstracted work. But initially looking at and working from nature is a more robust learning method.

Drawing itself is a tricky subject as it is so subjective, we each do things differently. There are, however, a few things that can be viewed in a more objective light. When I am drawing and know that I am, hopefully, going to use the result as the basis for printing I tend to start with line that describes the overall view. This line is predominantly a sinuous line that wraps around everything, creating shapes and spaces. This type of line that “roves” gives me time to evaluate the subject and start to pick out the lights and the darks, the structural compositional elements. These are generally the larger bodies of blacks and white and within those you can always find swathes of greys, mid-tones. It is usually these grey areas that contain texture and pattern that can be both seen and/or developed. I will come back to this. One of the major themes when making a black and white drawing for print is how the use of line can help break up those black and mid-tone areas. What has a dark side must, or generally does, have a light side. Many times it is better to break up the dark area using line, maybe it is brickwork (an angular sharp line), or vegetation (a varying, fluid line). What is grey or black on a white surface is, in terms of my “print-drawing”, just that a dark shape on white. A mid-tone on a black surface is more difficult to process and it is usually easier to represent this as white line work than a half tone pattern, as a white line is easier to create in print.

A great feature of lino-printing is the use of negatives and positives. How a black set in a white shape or a white in a black shape can create a feeling of space (one shape overlapping another), as well as act as a describer (a chimney, a tree, a car). Most things when looked at closely can be described in terms of tonal change, texture and pattern. It is being able to see and describe those textural areas accurately at the drawing stage which helps you later reinterpret them as interesting areas that helps the print to finally work.

Many times a strong, contrasting drawing will contain shadows. These are a good tool to have when creating volume in black and white as they always (almost always) run at an angle to the object being viewed. If the shadow doesn't do this then try to get into a position where it does. Shadows also cross many planes helping describe both perspective and structure, although try to make a note of the shadow direction and length as soon as you can as they can be fleeting.

Over the years I have developed my own short-hand of marks which tell me what a particular area or shape contains, maybe this is something you could develop for yourself. I have marks for grass, tree types, clouds, brickwork, water etc. these are not absolutes and can and do change from drawing to drawing. What this means is I can make a drawing faster, as I don't tend to worry too much about having to recreate everything too accurately. Using these aide-mémoires I later reinterpret them into pattern, line and texture.

Medium

It has taken several years, but I now tend to draw for print using a fountain or a dip pen, but of course any medium can be used. One caveat I would make on this is that for a single colour print (or even a two colour print), using a medium that can be readily interpreted into a lino speeds up the working process. So generally I wouldn't use a tonal medium (watercolour, charcoal) I’d rather work out how a tone can be represented/redefined in the linocut. Although if you do create your own short-hand maybe that makes use of these “softer” mark makers. Of course how you go about creating a drawing when the print becomes multi-coloured can be completely different.

I have in the past used black paper with white conte to try to define the drawing in a more "lino-method" from the outset, and although there is nothing wrong with this method I found it was pushing me into trying to solve too many problems before I actually met them (and others) on the lino. I’ve also used scraper-board on a few occasions, but found it no real substitute for a linocut. Even when it is used as the base drawing for a lino it is easy to get caught up with the fine lines you can create and from those lines the tone. Eventually the drawing no longer resembles what might be achieved in a linocut.

Redrawing and formatting

Problems tend to start to arise when you have finally completed the drawing you want to use. Most of the time I, like you probably, just draw and don’t think through the process which means the chances are the drawing will not fit the format I had in mind. Most drawings (unlike paintings) tend not to have edges. The edges of the paper are very rarely the drawing’s boundaries, drawings tend to float on the page and they, due to their nature have ill-defined boundaries. It is for this reason that I redraw, tracing the drawing and as I am tracing I redraw, redefine. I do this almost always away from the motif, in fact, I find it better if I redraw away from the motif. Sometimes I find that waiting a few days or weeks, by which time I have only the drawing to revisit, makes it easier to see things that are wrong, or that need changing in the drawing. This quite often means the final drawing does not match the motif, but it does more closely match my intentions, which from an aesthetic viewpoint is more valid.

It is during this secondary drawing that the compositional elements are given greater emphasis, textures are worked out and the whole shape of the original drawing is pushed and pulled into the squared off format of the lino. Don’t forget that the lino-block doesn’t have to be square. I can cut the shape to suit my design. If using more than one colour I can have several interdependent shapes linked by one describing line and each of those shapes could have an area that overprints another. When the drawing is completed and is within a whisker of the format, I scan it into my computer, then using a paint package I flop it (printers talk for creating a mirror image) and do the final image sizing so that the resulting printout fits exactly the shape I want my lino-print to be. This is the print that I use to transfer the drawing to the lino. Using plain carbon-copy paper I redraw (again) the line-work onto the lino block, the carbon transfers very accurately to the lino and does not rub away very easily.

The Linocut

I cut the lino block to the format I need and mount it onto a registration block using double sided tape. This means the block is secure for both cutting and if it requires registration is always in a fixed position. Then I transfer the image, using carbon-paper, from the print to the block. Although the next stages are the actual cutting stages, they are akin to redrawing the drawing - again.

Care needs to be taken that the areas I cut are the correct areas and that the marks are the right ones to use. This means proofing the block many times, sometimes even after only four or five small cuts. Each time a proof is made I redraw onto the proof, using a fine brush and white gouache, trying to gauge what the next marks should be - while doing this I am referring to the drawings I have made on the subject. On many occasions I have had to revisit the motif to redraw/reacquaint myself with some feature or other and make it clearer to me what the marks are trying to convey.

I do not have a precise approach to cutting. I do not start top left, or with the most detailed area or the one that has least in it. Generally I choose the most obvious shapes that can be cut, objects that need clear definition, a window frame cut out in white from a black (in shadow) wall, or an area that does not have a precise nature, clouds and trees for instance, then I will clear that edge with a “v” tool. Of course if the area that butts up to the clouds, or trees etc., needs to have a texture or line work then I need to to take care that I don’t end up with an unnatural white line around those object.

It is only when almost all the cutting has been completed and all that is left are the areas that require a fine texture that I rub down the block with a little water and wet & dry paper. I was taught this method because at the time the lino used had a hard coating and was rather rougher, and even though art lino of today is much smoother I feel the ink gets a better transfer when the block is truly smooth. The reason I wait until this stage, just before creating the fine texture, is because I don’t want to “rub out” those yet to be made delicate lines, but I do want to get rid of any carbon/indelible ink marks that may transfer to the paper when printed. As a rule these “drawing” marks do not transfer when printing in black, but if you are printing a lighter colour they can show.

Inking & printing

Printing from the block rather depends on the type of press you are using, baren or wooden spoon. and the paper. Inking up on the other hand, using a roller, is fairly straightforward.

As with all things the better the equipment/materials the better the result and the easier to use. I use a standard slab of safety glass for inking and as glass is very smooth it lets the ink roll out in an even and consistent manner. The ink should cover all the roller so be sure to roll back and forth over its entire circumference. A lot has been written about how the ink should look, its consistency etc., I think it varies a great deal and depends on the paper (how absorbent is it, is it a rough not surface, or smooth and flat), whether I want it to be a solid, flat covering or not and the number of colours being applied. As a gauge though, when rolled onto the slab, I try to get the surface of the ink to a consistency somewhere between orange peel and mole fur - I know, not easy to picture. With experience you also know whether it is right by the “pull” on the roller from the tackiness of the ink.

If possible (if you are rich enough - I am not) it is best to have the widest rollers of the largest circumference. This helps to transfer the ink from roller to block in one movement. Smaller rollers, especially on large blocks, need to be repeatedly inked and the number of movements across the block tends to be numerous, which means often I miss bits.

The next part, the printing, will depend on your method. I use a small two cylinder roller press with a platen (the part that moves between the rollers). Whatever the method ultimately the quality of the transfer of ink from block to paper will depend on pressure exerted and the stability of flatness (not a technical term!). If you are not worried about registration, then simple lay the paper over the block. It is best if the paper is laid slowly.

  1. With the block inked and on the platen (or table/board) hold down one edge of the paper firmly on the platen
  2. Hold the other edge at 90 degrees, almost vertical, to the fixed edge above
  3. Slowly bring down the vertical edge to the platen, covering the block.
  1. If you are using a press do not touch the paper again.
  2. Lay a printing blanket over the paper and block in the same way as 1 and 2 above.
  3. Run the platen though the press.
  4. Remove the blanket and the paper, reversing the actions of 1 and 2.
  5. Make sure the paper is held firmly against the platen to avoid any movement which would mark the print as you raise the paper up.

Of course the steps 4.5 and 6 are different if you are using a baren, as then you do not need a blanket and you most certainly do need to touch the paper.

SOME QUICK PRACTICAL POINTS