Last night, after many crude-to-disastrous tries at cutting block prints, I finally figured out I what I was doing wrong.
Everything I had attempted until then had been a huge crumbly mess, so I studied the cute, precise print my friend Vickie busted out the last time she was in town.
She's an excellent artist, but I knew that even she couldn't have done that by gouging and ripping big ragged chunks out of the linoleum the way I had been. So, I, um...tried turning the blade upside down.
I felt so stupid I blushed, even though there were no witnesses.
But it's a lot easier now. I've been screwing around with it since. I still have some things to figure out, but the picture up there is the best attempt so far.
I've been having a really good time playing with these. My old roommate used to do them all the time and did some really nice prints of things like the human intestinal tract and Willie Nelson. For some reason I never really tried it, but I should have.
I like having to stop and think about what parts of the picture should be negative. I like trying to figure out how to draw and write backwards. I like peeling the little strips of linoleum up with the tiny blade, and I like to make a big smeary mess with the printing ink.
Really, it's a lot like the potato prints we did in preschool, except now the blades are scary-sharp and I get to drink whiskey and chainsmoke while I work.