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The procedure of designing artworks by printing on paper is known as Printmaking. It creates prints that have a component of originality. A printmaking technique, Linocut, also referred to as lino printing, lino print, or linoleum art, was first displayed in New York City in 1911 by the Czech émigré Vojtech Pressing.
It is also a relief printing. Woodcuts and engraving are also other types of relief prints.
A printmaking shop in Mexico City in 1937 made productive use of Linocut in their powerful graphic posters.
Artists from Pablo Picasso to Henri Matisse have made use of this technique. And in this day and age, it emerged as a popular technique among street artists.
What is a Linocut?
Like woodcuts, it is a printing method using a sheet of linoleum, wherein a cutting method is used for taking away the parts of linoleum where one can keep the parts wanted to be inked and leave the white of the page. The design is cut with the aid of a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel, or gouge. As an outcome, one will have a linocut that can reproduce the same image repeatedly.
Linocuts can be attained by the careful application of art on the surface of the lino.
Why are linocuts preferred?
The procedure is uncomplicated and much easier to cut than wood. And it doesn’t have a grain as wood does. It is easier to obtain artistic effects with this method.
It is introduced among school students due to its ease of use. And non-professional artists often use this method.
The process of Linocut making:
the tools, with the raised regions representing a reversal of the parts to show printed. The sheet is inked with a roller then impressed onto paper or fabric. This process can be carried out using hands or with a printing press. It isn’t easy to create more significant works because of the material’s fragility.
Colour Linocuts:
These linocuts can be made by using a different block for each color as in a woodcut. The artists of the Grosvenor School used this method. But such prints can be achieved using a single piece of linoleum, as demonstrated by Pablo Picasso.
There are at least four ways to make a linocut-colored Home Decor write for us.
Such as Hand coloring, color reduction, multi-block printing, and Chin-Colle’.
- Hand Colouring: These linocuts are created by hand-painting watercolor or colored ink onto the black and white print.
- Colour reduction: In this method, multiple colors are printed from the same block. At first, the lino block is overlayed with the lightest tints, then printed on the paper. Again, the block is cut into, and another hue is used. The process is repeated for each color.
- Multi-block printing: Each color has a separate block, and consecutive colors are overprinted on the same image, enabling drying time in between.
- Chine-Colle’: A colored tissue paper is placed on the print before printing through the press. This leaves colored paper in the white areas.
Linocut Printing Papers:
Using smooth hand-made mulberry paper or smooth, absorbent papers, one can get the best linocuts print. To address this reason, Japanese rice papers are used as they tend to print very well. These papers are also traditionally used in Japanese woodblock prints. It is said that people can use BFK, D’Aches 88, or smooth watercolor paper as Saunders if printing with a press.
Masonite, an alternative to natural wood, is also used as a surface for linocuts, a prime part of Masonite siding. This board has multiple uses from this painting surface and drawing board.
Conclusion:
These designs can be cut in large masses, incised to give supple white lines, or worked in many ways to pull off many different textures. Masonite siding is a siding product people swarmed to for its initial strength and budget-friendliness, making it a popular choice. Similar to the Masonite siding, people flocked for the limited editions of linocuts to adorn their art collection.
Limited editions of paintings are collected, and one’s art collection is adorned. It is exquisitely suited to large decorative prints, using broad areas of flat color.
The Linocut was long disrespected by many artists as it was not adequately demanding of technical skill. But today, the Linocut is an established professional print medium, as it was used by many other artists centuries ago.
