Tag: Outboard

Making final work today for the Am Birlinn Christmas Craft Fair by printing a small boat linocut. I hope it will be dry by Friday!

The inspiration came from a summertime daytrip to Iona earlier this year. There was an eyecatching bright yellow boat moored on the Mull side of the Iona sound which I thought would look great as a colour print. I had intended to make this for the current exhibition at An Tobar ‘Yellow’, but I just didn’t manage to.

I decided to opt for making a reduction linocut rather than a screenprint as I wanted to develop my skills. Colour linocuts are something I often shy away from and I must try to go beyond my comfort zone.

The trouble with the yellow boat and reduction linocut was that really the yellow wouldn’t work with the process. Generally you work from pale to dark colours, but if I printed yellow all over the block the blues would turn out quite murky and not very vibrant. I could have cut a separate block for the yellow but I was concerned that the registration would be off. I opted to make a stencil for the yellow, where I inked the approximate area of the boat and its reflection only, on the block after I had made the first (white) cuts,  and then used a paper stencil to keep the edges neat. The next stage was a blend for the sea background and a dark blue final layer. I had planned an intermediate colour layer but I decided to change this plan as I could see the print was  going to lose definition when I did the first proof of the mid tone.