Flower Fountain Linoprint

This video blog will share behind the scenes footage of me carving, inking, and creating an 11 layer reduction linoprint, inspired by the flower fountain floral arrangements in Regent's Park, London. The video 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.

I started my flower fountain linoprint by planning the colour scheme and design on paper, before transferring it to Japanese relief printmaking vinyl. I carved out sections that I want to remain white with my Pfeil carving tools. Next I rolled out a light cyan blue Schmincke ink with a soft Japanese rubber roller, and transferred the ink to 300gsm cotton paper, with pressure on the surface.

I experimented with thin coats of process yellow Schmincke ink over a blue layer to create lovely bright green leaves. I like changing the transparency of ink using mediums, and testing how colour mixing with layers can create new effects. I continued building up layers of colour and ink, by carving away from the same relief printmaking vinyl block, you can see the progression of how much I cut away over time, as I add each new layer of colour.

I like the subtlety of the pinks, purples and oranges in this print, and I used only three printmaking inks to create every layer of colour in this design, which was a really enjoyable challenge, and I think it added interesting depth. I tend to work light to dark with my layers but at the end of the process I used yellows and greys to lift the print with lighter tones. This took a few thin layers added over the course of a day, it helps that Schmincke linoprint inks have a touch dry surface in approximately 15 minutes. In total this print is eleven layers of colour and carving, although a few colours were lightly applied a number of times so the total layers is higher than eleven.

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.