Carve Out Time — April Print Club: Sunny Sands

Each month, I create a new linocut for my Monthly Print Club, accompanied by a studio letter sharing the process and ideas behind the work.

These posts are a quieter version of those letters — shared here a little later, with less detail, but the same intention: to offer a slower look into the making.

For this second edition, I wanted to create something softer, subtler but very ‘coastal’. Capturing the sparkle and movement of water and clouds in just one colour is something I have wanted to experiment with for a long time. This piece directly feeds into my work on my next XXL linocut, my largest to date, which will feature clouds, sea, sky, as well as Dover cliffs, Folkestone’s lighthouse and the Warren.

Materials
For this print, I returned to a traditional favourite — battleship grey linoleum. It’s noticeably tougher than softer alternatives like Softcut or speedy-carve style blocks, which can feel a bit like carving an eraser. 

Process
This design began, as always, by tracing a photograph, flipping the design and transferring it onto the block in pencil, before refining in pen to prevent smudging.

For this piece, I used four tools — one for clearing the background of the block, which also helped me align the paper and centralise every print with ease, and then a mixture of U and V-shaped tools to create the very fine marks in this piece.

I printed and played with the colours many times, creating five versions until I was happy with the final result. Why so many? I wanted to be sure not to carve out too much — you can always carve more, but you can’t add any linoleum back.

Inks - Powder blue, Black and White Cranfield oil-based inks. Initially I hand mixed far too dark a grey — I wanted this to feel soft and soothing, not stormy and heavy. Adding more and more white, I eventually created the colour I was after. I created a ‘rainbow roll’. This is where you blend two (or more) colours (usually light to dark) and manually fade them by rolling back and forth across the gradient until it transitions in a way you’re happy with. The tricky part is keeping things consistent across the edition, and mixing enough ink without wasting any.

Printing
 For printing, I worked with a block cut to the same size as the paper to ensure consistent alignment. I deliberately kept some of the marks outside of the print’s border inky, to allow for variation, lino-print-y-ness and a bit of whimsy.

Sneak Peeks & Sources of Inspiration
I’ve just finished transferring the design of my next linocut onto the block. This required a bit of creativity — bridging gaps where my design (created digitally from photographs I took and layered/collaged) was slightly larger than the block I’ll be working with. I wanted the block to be exactly twice the size of my last linoprint, so I cut it from a roll of traditional linoleum, making it slightly smaller in width than A1.

What was fun was moving the clouds, deciding what elements I really needed, and really settling into the composition during this transfer process. Creating a small mock-up to explore layering and colour was also useful — though ridiculously small (and impossible to align!), it reminded me that lighter colours should be printed first.

Before I start carving the block next week, I’ll be experimenting further with the design I’ve carved for you lovely lot — playing with a second layer and a double rainbow roll. I may even add a third, woodcut layer, as I am very inspired by the work of Ian Phillips, who I met earlier this spring.