London linocut, stage 1

31 July 2010

I've printed the first colours on the new big linocut.



A blend from pale blue through grey to dark grey. Already, some of the image starts to appear.

But wait! Where did those red lines at the top come from?



Usually, I use a black Sharpie to draw the image on the block. (Black Sharpie is truly permanent; other so-called permanent markers fade when you clean the linoblock after printing.) But I had to use a different colour to sort out a mess of drawing.

Now it turns out that red Sharpie that I used doesn't dry properly on lino... In fact, it prints!

I ran the block through the press several times, printing onto scrap paper; this got rid of the worst of the Sharpie ink. I just have to hope that what's printed onto the paper here will disappear under the further layers of ink.