My girls have been intent on mastering lino-block printing. This beautiful nature study is the result of 4 days of planning, sketching, carving and printing. Quite the masterful composition for an 8 year old!
But as you may already know, the completion of a lino-block print is less about the design and more about the long long process. She could have sketched and colored the above design in with markers and have achieved a somewhat similar effect. But that would not be anywhere near as satisfying!
Gouging the linoleum is the most arduous part, in fact this part took Miss K two days. Slow and easy is the rule of thumb...
Here is a bird's eye view of the linoleum 3/4 of the way complete:
In the meantime, Miss A worked on her mermaid print. In this picture, you see her rolling ink on her block.
Slowly lifting the paper off the block and seeing the relief in color is truly the most exciting part. It's all giggles, oohs and ahhs in our little studio.
While the girls have already completed at least 10 blocks, I've yet to start my first. When it comes to this medium, all the ideas are trapped in my head space. To me, the idea of carving is so irreversable, that I've gotten a bit stuck and unable to make the first gouge. I'm trying to take these kids' lead and just take the plunge!
