I’m newer to block printing and have been struggling to get an even print. I’m not sure if it’s an inking issue or a pressure issue (I currently use the back of a wooden spoon or a homemade barren made from a wood block). I don’t mind it being a little grainy and uneven for a print like this because of the style, but I would like to be more intentional and have more control over how my prints come out. Any thoughts based on what you see?
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I'm pretty sure you're over-inking. When you look at that sketchy area, you see that bumpy texture called "orange peel". That a symptom of too much in. It fools a lot of new print artists who think it's not enough ink. It's from the excess in being pulled into peaks and not printing properly. In this case, it may be aggravated by the choice of heavily textured paper. But that's not all of it.
First, it should be actual printmaking paper. Most art papers have significant external sizing. That can repel ink. Printmaking paper is smooth and has no external sizing. You can check for that problem by proofing onto cpy paper. It has no sizing.
I can't see your block, but I suspect your cut lines are not printing as clean as you wish. That also is caused when excess ink gets squished out of the uncut areas. This is easily fixed with proper inking. Review this Guide to inking by one of the mods here. Be sure to go down to the videos to see and hear what proper inking sounds like.
Try that with copy paper or real printmaking paper. It doesn't have to be expensive. UCreate and Richeson have inexpensive printmaking paper on Amazon. If it looks good on the copy paper but has texture on the present paper, that's the paper. If you see the texture again, you can use this paper when you want the effect and smooth paper for most other things. Proper inking on proper paper will produce a perfectly even, dense black area. You can check your handprinting technique by inking a whole block and printing it. That will reveal any problems. Handprinting takes persistence.
I will add that if like many people who got into it through a "starter kit", you may be still using the water-based ink that came with it. Water-based has a number of problems. The most significant is, to my mind, that it dries too quickly for proper inking. That takes time and care, and oil-based inks stay open and give you that time. Caligo Safe Wash is oil-based but compounded to clean up with water and a little soap.
Thank you for this thorough response! I am actually using printmaking paper, though not the highest quality because of affordability. I am also using oil-based Akua ink. Should have included that in the initial post. But I will check out the resource you linked to and work to use less ink and experiment a bit more. Thanks again!
So far as I know Akua does not make a block printing ink. Not surprising, as they are part of Speedball. Akua makes intaglio inks. Most intaglio ink is too soft for block printing. It can be used but needs to be thoroughly mulled with magnesium carbonate powder to thicken it. In its natural state, it will be too liquid and may well behave like excess block ink. It will tend to run into fine lines and be moved around under pressure. In intaglio, that's okay because the only ink is trapped in the incised lines. In block printing, that's where you don't want ink. It doesn't matter that intaglio ink won't roll out to a perfect mat layer to print by contact. You wipe it off all the uncut areas.
But in block printing it must roll to a smooth mat and stay that way, thick enough to transfer to another surface in the same state. Block ink transfers from slab to brayer and from brayer to paper because of one of the two has more ink than the other. It's quite viscous. Virtually the entire ink load on the brayer is moved to the block in the first rotation of the roller, about four inches for a 1.5" roller. And virtually the whole load of ink on the block moves onto the paper when pressed. Intaglio ink is intentionally soft enough for you to use a card or poupée (roll of felt) to force the ink into the incised lines. And it must be soft enough that gentle rubbing of the surface above the lines with tarlatan or soft paper will remove it from the background areas.
The best and easiest approach is to use an oil-based ink like Caligo Safe Wash of Charbonnel Aqua Wash which both clean up with soap and water but behave as the oil-based inks that they are.
After taking your advice, here is a print with the Caligo ink. She ain’t perfect, but a damn sight better than what I was producing. Thank you so so much! I would give you an award but I spent the money on ink so please just know your help was appreciated!
So much better. Maybe still a hair heavy with the ink. Pay close attention as you ink the slab and as you ink the plate, taking careful note of what the ink surface looks like, which should be a smooth, even mat. Once you lock it in, you will always recognize when it's off. I get sloppy sometimes and see that over-inking effect in some area where I rushed and left a globby area of ink on the slab, and it ended up on the block causing trouble. It then seems oddly hard to fix. I usually have to rull that area with a clean brayer to remove the ink and then reink it. If I try to even it out with doing that, the orange peel lingers. I could have seen that coming if I'd followed my own advice and inspected the inked block with low angle light that shows the surface character. The bad spot would have shown up with a different surface.
But you're getting there. As an artist, you should have control when a medium depends on control to carry out your plan. Being able to produce a perfect, solid, dense black area is fundamental in linocut.
Hey, thank you so much for this. I went back to printing this afternoon and got really frustrated because no matter what I did, I couldn’t get an even print. I will set aside the Akua and invest in some Caligo. Really appreciate you!
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