Spring was a welcome change from the cold days of winter, I decided to complete a suite of botanical prints exploring composition and color. The tulip, coneflower, and allium are three of my favorite flowers. I will share the processes I used to complete the prints. I began by completing a series of pencil drawings. I then traced the drawings and transferred them to the linoleum blocks.
The traced tulips and coneflowers have been transferred to linileum blocks.
Carved coneflowers, ready to proof and ptint.
I am now ready to print the three blocks. I will use Zerkall book paper. It has a lovely surface for printing. I may have to do a bit of additional carving once I am on the press and see how the images print. However, I am pretty confident that these images will print beautifully. with few adjustments or changes. Let’s head to the print shop and my Vandercook!
I printed a colored mat for each print. I chose warm red for the coneflowers.
I printed small editions of 10-11 prints and used black for the images. The coneflowers printed beautifully.
The was a rewarding project for welcoming Spring.
The allium is also transferred and ready for carving. Note that I have gone over each drawn image with a Sharpee pen. This facilitates the carving process. It helps me to know both the positive and negative space of the compositions. Additionally, the pen is permanent and will not come off while I am carving.
The alliums are carved. I am so pleased with this carved block and the detail of the flowers!
The tulips are carved and ready to proof and print.
The alliums looked great on this violet hue.
A pale teal worked nicely as a mat for the tulips.