Amsterdam canal inspired linoprint

This video blog shares behind the scenes footage of me carving, inking, and creating a 12 layer reduction linoprint, inspired by the streets, canals and houseboats of Amsterdam. The blog details tools that I use, my process for layering up the colour using the reduction print method, and how I carved the printmaking block to create the image.

For this project I used a Japanese rubber roller to transfer Schmincke printmaking ink onto relief printmaking vinyl. Throughout the whole process I used sharp swiss metal printmaking tools to carve out the design. I enjoyed playing with different layers and experimented a lot with this design. I started by building up thin layers of green for the foliage and water in an impressionistic style, before moving onto the buildings, adding grey and blue layers for windows, walls, cars and boats. Normally I don't personally like to add light on dark, but in this case I wanted some of those darker layers to show through in places. Every time I added a new colour I carved away more from the block so it gradually reduced in size.

I used subtle shades of dusky pinky peach mixes, and warm terracotta browns to build up detail on the buildings, and I have shared peel reveals at each stage so you can see the progression of colour, and carving. In the video you can see how much of the original block disappears over time, and when I am finished the block is completely destroyed and no further prints can be made from it.

The final result is 12 layers of ink, 12 hand-carved layers from 1 block of lino, for an edition of 8 prints, which is approximately 96 times being manually rolled through a printing press.

I hope this has been helpful, thank you for reading and watching my video blog below. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel for future video blog posts and to leave any questions in the comments section, or follow my blog on this website.