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The making of my cat face lino print

In this blog I am sharing with you how I created this cat face lino print

As I love cats I had to make a cat face. This cat means business. He’s fierce, he has cattitude – he’s a bit of a bruiser. I created him using a Speedball Speedy Carve block which is a thick pink block and very easy to carve. It’s one of my favourite lino blocks, but it’s not cheap. This is the smallest size they sell (7.6 x 10cm or 3×4 inch).

Carved Speedball lino block
Carved Speedball lino block

 

I originally used water based ink to print my proofs and tried out red ink and red ink with black. As it’s just one block and not a reduction block I didn’t really plan it as a two colour print. Below are images of how it looks like in red. And how it looks like in red and black.

 

 

Cat face red test print.
Cat face red test print.

 

Cat face test print with water based inks
Cat face test print with water based inks.

 

After trying several different papers, I opted for the smooth Daler Rowney heavyweight cartridge paper and at the time of printing I had Akua ink, which is soy based. As the block is a bit smaller than the others I have used, I decided to print it as an A5 print. Not all prints worked out well, which is why it took a while to get an edition of 18 together. I didn’t have my new registration set up , that I am using now, for this print and used my guides which are all cut to the appropriate size of each block.

Registration guide with lino block.
Registration guide with lino block.

 

I hope you like my cat. You can find him in the shop here.

Cat face lino print.
Cat face lino print.

 

Thanks for reading

Helen x