about the author: two colour lino print practice

This series of lino print practice was not successful, but did teach me a lot!

• The first image was one of my most successful prints, despite the faded print and slight mark (although I think the fade could look quite nice if it managed to be consistent throughout the prints). By this point I had learnt that it was best to make the red print into stamps to avoid marks from the rest of the lino, so this gave it a cleaner print.

• The second image was my most successful umbrella print but that does not make it good! Because I hadn't considered stamp making on the first (blue) layer, there are lots of marks from the rest of the lino plate which make it look very untidy, and do not suit the nature of Murakami's balance and clean edges.

• The next two images were before I had cut out the red layer as separate shapes and again, had those messy lines left on the plate, which has been described as "looking like someone has been massacred over them", which is not very much in the Murakami mood! However, having the whole plate available did help with aligning the layers. 

• There needs to be a lot of consideration into how I will physically print these images if I choose to create separate stamps. I think a float made of the original design but reversed would be best as I could accurately place each stamp on to the float. The egg yolk and face were ok as they had right angles corresponding with the edges of the print but as the umbrella floats in the middle of its image it took many many tries before I got it into a place which was vaguely right! Lino has taught me that it needs lots of planning.

• The final image is a complete mess, from two of the wrong plates being put together. Take care when printing!