Linocut Printmaking: Halloween 2022
August 10, 2022
My mother has been crafting beautiful greeting cards for the past decade. In the summer of 2021, she decided to try selling them at a series of local events in my hometown of Amherst, Ohio. She was a bit nervous about doing it, though, so I offered to go along with her to keep her company and help set-up her tent and table. This year, I decided that I would print-up a series of cards myself and went with a Halloween theme.
Given the fact that I was born on Halloween, the autumn season, as well as all of the imagery and mythos that go along with it, hold a special place in my heart. I also grew-up in Amherst, Ohio, and spent quite a bit of time hanging-out downtown during my childhood, so the decision to create a Halloween-inspired line of cards for the Walkin’ On Wednesday event was an easy one.
Because of the time crunch, which was mostly due to my procrastination to get started on them, I wanted to design something simple. The concept of a silhouette over a gradient moon was something I knew I could complete in two or three days. The silhouettes were easy to source from clip art examples online, but proved to be more difficult to cut than I’d originally thought. The exceptionally tough and tedious parts were the numerous bats in the Black Cat print. Overall, I’m happy with how they turned-out and plan to add two more prints to the collection if my mother decides to attend the Walkin’ On Wednesday event in September.
Image Gallery
- Finished Guides The guides are created in Photoshop to the size of the target blocks.
- Marking-Up The Blocks The guides are reverse images of the final print. Carbon paper is used to transfer the image to the linoleum blocks. A permanent marker is used to fix the image to the blocks so it doesn't smear during the cutting process.
- Cutting the Moon Block A rubber printing plate was used for the moon. The rubber doesn't work with the carbon paper transfer process, so I can only use them for simple plates.
- Printing the Moon Plate To be honest, this came-out looking more like a setting sun, but I suppose that works as well.
- Moon Plates The fourteen cards, along with four test plates. One of the things I love about printmaking is how, while each print is essentially the same, they're all unique in slightly different ways. Take the differing gradients in each print.
- The Witch Block The turned-out to be the easier of the two to cut. The brim of the hat was nerve-wracking because without them it would look like she was wearing a dunce cap.
- Black Cat Block I figured the whiskers and eyes of the cat would be the tough part of this plate, but it was actually the bats that drove me crazy. Cutting-out the curved parts of the bat wings was a real pain.
- Finished Witch Print With Block
- Finished Black Cat Print With Block
- Finished Prints Overall, I'm happy with how these turned-out. There could be a bit more going-on around the edges of them. Perhaps, if I print more of these next month, I'll give myself some time to embellish them by hand.
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