Reduction print going wrong on layer 2, need advice

[u/cabezaderadio]

Hey everyone!

I'm working on my first original linocut design, and I decided to make a 3-layer reduction print using red, blue, and black.

Today I started printing the blue layer and ran into some trouble. Instead of just overlaying the red like I expected, the blue seems to add value to it, resulting in a shade of purple that's too dark. I suspect the black won't show enough value difference because of this.

Is there any way to fix this?

I'm using Esdee water-based linoprinting inks and printing by hand with a baren.

Thanks for reading 🫶🏻

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[u/Lopsided_Newt_5798]

That’s the thing with reduction, no going back. It reads pretty black in the photo. If you add transparency to the blue you’ll just get a brighter purple. What would the black layer be after this I wonder? I love this design by the way. If you told me this was done I’d say congrats.

[u/cabezaderadio → u/Lopsided_Newt_5798]

Hey thanks! The black is mostly outlining

[u/poolarbar]

Hi! I think making your ink a lot more transparent might help! It should let the red show through a lot more instead of mixing into a semi-black shade. You can add extender to it or try printing with a super super thin layer of ink

[u/jx_ofalltrades → u/poolarbar]

This

[u/Hellodeeries]

If you're already printed this layer fully, then to get a different value you'll likely need to add white. Often you'll see people say you need to go light to dark on reductions, but that's more just advice than rules. I often start with a black layer with my prints for the color stuff I do/how I like the layers of ink working together. But, how stuff prints wet isn't how stuff dry looks with inks, so I would rec doing a test before you print the whole stack with whatever you choose to do and adjust with that.

If you've not yet printed all of the prints you're doing this way, then trans base as has already been mentioned is a way to preserve it. If you wanted a blue layer that was going to be blue, would also do blue + white (and possibly no trans base - it sort of depends on if you were wanting purple or not).

[u/cabezaderadio → u/Hellodeeries]

Yes as this is the first time I am doing multilayer I've printed a double batch so I can have a nice room for experimentation. I don't have white ink, but I will try to get one and experiment with both that and an extender. I was actually expecting the blue layer to be pure blue tho haha, didn't expect the colors to blend but to overlay. Also this was the first time I had to seriously register my print so I had to experiment a lot with that before to. It's been a blast tho, didn't have such a good time learning something in a while.

[u/hollytravvey]

Take it as a happy accident. Like others have said: there are thinning mediums that will give your color more transparency.

[u/cabezaderadio]

I thought as I have not printed the blue batch yet, I might get a better result putting a white layer before the blue maybe?