Screenprinting is not the only form of stencil art. Lino-printing allows you to create a specific moulded stencil in order to produce patterns or images. At Steve Wood Services we provide a variety of inks suitable for lino-printing. Learn more about lino-printing below.
What is lino-printing?
Considered as a simpler way of screenprinting, an image or pattern is carved into a linoleum surface using a special V-shaped chisel. Printing ink is applied with a roller to the areas that are left uncarved, before impressing the mould onto paper or fabric, thus producing a print.
How do I use colour in lino-prints?
The majority of lino-prints are singular colours but it is possible to create a print with overlapping colours. During the carving process ink can be applied and the mould impressed at strategic stages so as to produce a multi-layered overall print.
Alternatively, a stencil can be made of your planned print on tracing paper so that you can produce various lino-cuts on separate pieces of linoleum. Of course, many lino-print artists choose to simply print their finished mould in different colours to create a varying style.
What if I want to use a specific pattern?
Linoleum is a great tool for artists because it allows you to draw in pencil on the mould. Due to the mould only being for stencil purposes these pencil markings won’t affect your finished print design. You can even trace your image onto the lino from a pre-designed pattern.
How much printing ink do I need?
Lino-printing does allow for a form of colour shading depending on the amount of ink you use. The key to making a lino-print though is to apply the ink sparingly across all of the uncarved, and so raised, areas. A print can be made a few times from the same ink first applied so that a lighter image is produced. A lino-print artist will create a series of prints before choosing which one/s they want as their final design.
(Pablo Picasso in his studio in 1957, via Phaidon)
Who are some of the artists associated with lino-printing?
A number of well-known and popular artists produced a series of lino-prints, such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Other artists that specialise particularly in lino-printing include American graphic artist Janet Doub Erickson who has produced multi-layered prints, English Sybil Andrews best known for her modern prints, and her artistic partner Canadian Cyril Edward Power.
If you’re interested in creating your own lino-print have a look at our range of inks and colours suitable for lino-printing. Don’t hesitate to contact us at Steve Wood Services if you have any queries. We’ll be happy to help you!