Draw Cut Ink Press
  • Home
  • Linocut Journal
    • All Inspirational Artists Lino Cut Projects Linocut Books Linocut Tips Linocut Workshops Tools & Materials
      Linocut-Print-Maker-Scott-Minzy-Cover

      Linocut Artist & Printmaker Scott Minzy interview

      9th October 2020

      Kathleen-Neeley-linocut-artist-interview

      Artist Interview with Kathleen Neeley (aka @kathleep) & Her Other Worldly Linocut Prints

      16th August 2020

      flexcut-lino-cutting-tools

      Flexcut Lino Cutting Tools Reviewed

      10th May 2020

      Lucie Spartacus self portrait

      Lucie Spartacus talks art history, linocut printmaking & strong women!

      2nd May 2020

      Linocut-Print-Maker-Scott-Minzy-Cover

      Linocut Artist & Printmaker Scott Minzy interview

      9th October 2020

      Kathleen-Neeley-linocut-artist-interview

      Artist Interview with Kathleen Neeley (aka @kathleep) & Her Other Worldly Linocut Prints

      16th August 2020

      Lucie Spartacus self portrait

      Lucie Spartacus talks art history, linocut printmaking & strong women!

      2nd May 2020

      South American Linocut Artists

      Latin American Linocut Artists

      26th April 2020

      Printing Perfect Linocuts

      The best lino printing method to get great results

      1st March 2020

      designing-black-and-white-linocuts

      Designing black and white linocuts

      1st February 2020

      Woodcut-Vs-Linocut-materials

      Linocut vs Woodcut, Pt 1

      2nd June 2019

      Cyclops Lino cut step-by-step-cover

      Lino Printing Step by step guide 01 – Cyclops!

      26th July 2016

      Linocut Book

      Linocut Boy Book – Linocut for artists and designers, by Nick Morley – Review

      3rd August 2016

      Tabulae-artist- Printmakermaker-interview

      Artist Interview; Tabulae – The 21st Century Renaissance Man

      5th March 2020

      Printing Perfect Linocuts

      The best lino printing method to get great results

      1st March 2020

      designing-black-and-white-linocuts

      Designing black and white linocuts

      1st February 2020

      linocut-slipstone

      What is a Slipstone and why should I use one?

      10th September 2019

      Linocut Colour Workshop

      Resort Studios – Colour Lino Printing Workshop Review

      27th January 2016

      flexcut-lino-cutting-tools

      Flexcut Lino Cutting Tools Reviewed

      10th May 2020

      Printing Perfect Linocuts

      The best lino printing method to get great results

      1st March 2020

      designing-black-and-white-linocuts

      Designing black and white linocuts

      1st February 2020

      linocut-slipstone

      What is a Slipstone and why should I use one?

      10th September 2019

  • The Manifesto
  • Portfolio
  • Get In Touch
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Linocut Journal
    • All Inspirational Artists Lino Cut Projects Linocut Books Linocut Tips Linocut Workshops Tools & Materials
      Linocut-Print-Maker-Scott-Minzy-Cover

      Linocut Artist & Printmaker Scott Minzy interview

      9th October 2020

      Kathleen-Neeley-linocut-artist-interview

      Artist Interview with Kathleen Neeley (aka @kathleep) & Her Other Worldly Linocut Prints

      16th August 2020

      flexcut-lino-cutting-tools

      Flexcut Lino Cutting Tools Reviewed

      10th May 2020

      Lucie Spartacus self portrait

      Lucie Spartacus talks art history, linocut printmaking & strong women!

      2nd May 2020

      Linocut-Print-Maker-Scott-Minzy-Cover

      Linocut Artist & Printmaker Scott Minzy interview

      9th October 2020

      Kathleen-Neeley-linocut-artist-interview

      Artist Interview with Kathleen Neeley (aka @kathleep) & Her Other Worldly Linocut Prints

      16th August 2020

      Lucie Spartacus self portrait

      Lucie Spartacus talks art history, linocut printmaking & strong women!

      2nd May 2020

      South American Linocut Artists

      Latin American Linocut Artists

      26th April 2020

      Printing Perfect Linocuts

      The best lino printing method to get great results

      1st March 2020

      designing-black-and-white-linocuts

      Designing black and white linocuts

      1st February 2020

      Woodcut-Vs-Linocut-materials

      Linocut vs Woodcut, Pt 1

      2nd June 2019

      Cyclops Lino cut step-by-step-cover

      Lino Printing Step by step guide 01 – Cyclops!

      26th July 2016

      Linocut Book

      Linocut Boy Book – Linocut for artists and designers, by Nick Morley – Review

      3rd August 2016

      Tabulae-artist- Printmakermaker-interview

      Artist Interview; Tabulae – The 21st Century Renaissance Man

      5th March 2020

      Printing Perfect Linocuts

      The best lino printing method to get great results

      1st March 2020

      designing-black-and-white-linocuts

      Designing black and white linocuts

      1st February 2020

      linocut-slipstone

      What is a Slipstone and why should I use one?

      10th September 2019

      Linocut Colour Workshop

      Resort Studios – Colour Lino Printing Workshop Review

      27th January 2016

      flexcut-lino-cutting-tools

      Flexcut Lino Cutting Tools Reviewed

      10th May 2020

      Printing Perfect Linocuts

      The best lino printing method to get great results

      1st March 2020

      designing-black-and-white-linocuts

      Designing black and white linocuts

      1st February 2020

      linocut-slipstone

      What is a Slipstone and why should I use one?

      10th September 2019

  • The Manifesto
  • Portfolio
  • Get In Touch
  • Shop
0

Draw Cut Ink Press

For The Love of Linocut & Relief Printmaking

Lino Cut ProjectsLinocut Journal

Lino Printing a Colour Gradient

written by Draw Cut Ink Press 14th March 2016
Lino Printing a Colour Gradient

Lino printing a colour gradient is a great way to add some interesting colour treatments to your linocut designs. I’m no expert at getting a perfect gradient of inks mixed but I wanted to share this as a really quick post to show you all how I mix inks into a colour gradient. The main trick (and one that is really difficult to master) is not to over do it when mixing the inks. You want a really nice clean blend of inks, not a sludgy mix of inks.

I decided that I wanted to add a gradient to one of my diving whale prints. The gradient would make up the background layer and then I’d overprint a black layer with all the details. I wanted the gradient to go from a dark ocean blue to an almost transparent tone of that colour so I mixed Emerald Green, Cobalt Blue and Black for my ocean colour and squeezed out a blob of Transparent Extender to blend this into. This would hi-light the depth of the ocean water and add some colour to the composition.

Lino printing a colour gradient - about to start!

By cutting out a rectangular piece of lino that matched the size of my print, I was able to place this next to where I intended to roll out the colour gradient and get a measurement of how long the colour blend needs to be.

lino printing a colour gradient - step 03

Using a palette knife, I begin by spreading out my ocean colour ink on the left and my extender on the right. Then you just start to roll out the ink. If anything I used too much ink, try to use less than I did on the image above (you can see that the ink is too thick on the glass). I’d also recommend using a roller with a larger circumference than the roller I used here. These smaller circumference rollers are not that great in my opinion. I’d always recommend a roller that is around 150mm in circumference, instead of 100mm circumference pictured. It doesn’t sound like much but it makes a difference believe me.

Lino printing a colour gradient 05

Once the ink starts to get evenly rolled out, lift the roller and place it back down an inch to the left or right. Then roll up, and again lift the roller and place it back down an inch back to the left. Repeat this, slowly varying the extent to which you move the roller up to the left or the right.

lino printing a colour gradient - mid way through the mix

The extender ink seemed to resist the ocean colour ink I mixed, so I had to actually blend this more than I wanted and this started to mean that I lost some of the definition of the blend from dark to light tones of ink.

Lino printing a colour gradient

The final blend was not as smooth as I had wanted (but then Draw Cut Ink Press is about sharing all the trials and tribulations of the lino printing process!) but I did get a blend of dark to light.

Lino printing a colour gradient - ink rolled onto the lino

The final step was to roller the ink on my lino before printing. If I had had a roller that was as long as the piece of lino I would not have had the banding at the right hand side of the lino that you can see above. This is why I’d say it is good to have a really good selection of larger rollers. However, if you look at the left hand side you can see the deep dark ocean blue that definitely gets lighter towards the right. I wasn’t too worried about the banding as I thought this would potentially add to the image where the banding would sit alongside the waves that would be printed on the second layer.

lino printing a colour gradient - printing the detail layer

So, lino printing a colour gradient. Below are some of the results; I took a quick photo of some of the work in progress, and one of the final prints. I really like to experiment, and on the print on the right you can see some white areas where I wiped off some of the gradient ink before running it through the etching press.

Lino Printing a Colour Gradient

One of the colour gradients beside one of the final prints

Lino Printing a Colour Gradient was last modified: March 14th, 2016 by Draw Cut Ink Press
Colour GradientColour Lino Printing
0 comment
7
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Draw Cut Ink Press

previous post
Carving linocut letters and numbers
next post
Cleaning a linocut after printing

You may also like

Barens for Printmaking

Using a Baren for Printmaking

30th March 2018
lino printing tools and lino cut design

Get tooled up and start lino printing

4th December 2015
Top Linocut Artists

Top Linocut artists to follow on Instagram

27th February 2016
Linocut Colour Workshop

Resort Studios – Colour Lino Printing Workshop Review

27th January 2016
Pfeil Lino cutting tools

Pfeil Lino Cutting Tools – A guide

22nd February 2016
designing-black-and-white-linocuts

Designing black and white linocuts

1st February 2020
Linocut Letters and Numbers

Carving linocut letters and numbers

2nd March 2016
final colour lino printing leaf design

Colour Lino Printing & Multiple Layer Registration

20th February 2016
Cyclops Lino cut step-by-step-cover

Lino Printing Step by step guide 01 – Cyclops!

26th July 2016
Linocut Book

Linocut Boy Book – Linocut for artists and designers, by Nick Morley – Review

3rd August 2016

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

15 − 6 =

Newsletter

Recent Posts

  • Linocut Artist & Printmaker Scott Minzy interview
  • Artist Interview with Kathleen Neeley (aka @kathleep) & Her Other Worldly Linocut Prints
  • Flexcut Lino Cutting Tools Reviewed
  • Lucie Spartacus talks art history, linocut printmaking & strong women!
  • Latin American Linocut Artists

Categories

  • Inspirational Artists
  • Lino Cut Projects
  • Linocut Books
  • Linocut Journal
  • Linocut Tips
  • Linocut Workshops
  • Tools & Materials
  • Uncategorised

Archives

  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • March 2018
  • May 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015

Basket

  • Twitter
  • Google +
  • Instagram
Footer Logo

@2016 - Draw Cut Ink Press. All Right Reserved.


Back To Top