What happens when lino cuts meet viscosity inking?
A lot of people enjoy lino printing as it is so accessible and can be done quite easily at home. I am finding there is also an increasing interest in viscosity inking, and as these two techniques are not usually combined, I wondered what would happen if we bring them together.
What is Viscosity inking?
Viscosity inking is a way of getting lots of different colours onto a printing plate at once. The key is the way runny ink and stiff ink behave together; basically stiff ink attracts runny ink. If you have some areas of runny red ink on a plate, and then roll over them with stiff blue ink, the inks dont mix; you will end up with the patches of red surrounded by blue. Please have a look at this post for a more extensive explanation of how it works.
Preparation for viscosity inking involves preparing a selection of colours, some straight out of the pot so they are stiff, and some with added linseed oil so they are runny.
When the loose unpredictability of viscosity inking meets the reliably repeatable lino images some very interesting things start to happen…. Read on to find out, and I hope it may inspire you to have a go yourself
Making a test lino block
To test out the combination of viscosity inking and lino cuts I decided to make a very simple lino cut block using vinyl lino. The image is inspired by our recent walk on the Dales Way in Yorkshire. The long distance path goes over the watershed at the top of Wharfedale and down into Dent dale. As you walk over the high fells, there are no trees, just grass and bog so the light coloured path shows up and you can see your route snaking off into the distance over the fells.
The design is deliberately simple to leave plenty of room for some inventive viscosity inking. I like working with a simple matrix like this as it allows for multiple possibilities; if everything is mapped out in detail there is not so much room for improvisation. It often takes quite a bit of self control to resist adding too many details at this stage, but less really is more in this case.
Masking the block before inking
The first stage of viscosity inking on a smooth block or plate is to mask areas. This is because we need some parts of the plate to remain without ink after the first colour roll.
Here the plate is masked with some hemp fibres and a piece of torn newspaper.
To create a more controlled image you can cut paper masks to correspond to specific areas on the lino block. E.g. I could cut paper masks to follow the lines of the hills on this plate. This means the colour rolls would correspond exactly to the cut design – see below for this approach.
The first viscosity roll with runny ink
Here is the lino block with the first layer of (runny) ink rolled on. Both halves were masked with the hemp fibre, giving an organic pattern, which I like as it is a good contrast to the more graphic cut lines in the lino block.
The top section is rolled in blue, a rainbow roll so 2 shades of blue here.
The bottom section has an orange/red rainbow roll.
In this image the cut lines in the vinyl are showing up as white. This is also what will happen when it is printed as the roller only touches the top surface of the lino therefore no ink reaches the low indented areas.
The second viscosity roll with stiff ink
Here is the second layer of (stiff) ink on the top section of the lino block.
The roller is charged up with stiff light blue ink. When this is rolled once over the plate, the stiff ink picks up a layer of the runny ink as you can see on the used roller. (This gets cleaned off in-between rolls)
Any un-inked areas of the plate will receive the stiff ink, so here we end up with the light blue ink filling in the gaps left by the hemp mask.
I hope you are keeping up! Viscosity inking is hard to describe in words – you really have to do it to get it.
The print combining viscosity inking and lino cut
This image shows the final print with the whole surface of the lino block inked up in different viscosity colours.
For the bottom half of the image I laid some more hemp fibre on before inking it with a stiff dark green ink. This created the extra white lines mixing with the green ones.
Same lino block, different viscosity inking
For a second experiment I rolled three slightly more realistic colours, following the cut lines in the block. Newspaper masks helped to keep the ink more or less in the right areas.
As it is the first layer of viscosity inking all these inks were mixed with linseed oil to make them runny.
The reality of our walk over the watershed was heavy rain and mist (no sign of blue sky) so all the prints have a lot of artistic license!
Wiping runny ink off to make space for the layer of stiff ink
As an alternative to masking sections of the plate, I used a stiff rag scrunched up to wipe some areas clear of ink. This gave texture to the sky and the yellow hills. In the red foreground you can see contour lines made with a plastic comb and clumps of rushes made by scraping the ink with a wooden stick. These marks are more painterly and closer to drawing than the masking shown in the previous print, and the effects are more subtle.
If you are familiar with mono printing you will most likely have used these techniques. The main thing with viscosity inking is to make sure that you have really wiped areas clear of runny ink in order to leave a non oily space for the second roll of stiff ink to show up. If there is oil left on the plate the stiff ink won’t show.
In the print you can see the lines scraped through the runny orange ink (first layer) are now filled with the stiff green ink (second layer). The cut lines remain ink free as in a more conventional lino print.
Fun with ghost prints
It is always worth experimenting with ghost prints; a pale version of the original inking shows through, increasing the complexity of the image. In the one shown here I didnt clean the plate, but repeated the process of masking and rolling ink over, with different colours. The roller also transferred an off-set image back onto the plate. I call this a happy accident!
In this case it is particularly interesting that a tree like image appeared because the upland fells at Langstrothdale where we walked used to be an ancient forest, so the ghost print could be a ghost of the older landscape!
Further experiments with lino
This last block was a test one, made by using up an off-cut of vinyl lino. Inspired by Mary Dalton’s experimental approach to lino cuts I tested out some alternative mark making tools on it. You may not guess that many of the marks were made with a cheese grater and various scrapers as well as some conventional lino tools. The little dots are the result of poking it with a soldering iron.
Masking and wiping on the same plate
A good base for experimentation
The familiar structure of the carved lino plate provides a good solid support, and a repeatable matrix. Hopefully this firm foundation will give you confidence to explore the possibilities by overlaying the plate with new colours, textures and shapes.
Viscosity inking is a colourful technique you can apply to mono prints, as well as a range of relief and intaglio plates, whether your plates are lino cuts, etchings, drypoint or collagraphs. As in life, cross fertilisation and the meeting of opposites is what brings excitement and gives birth to new ideas.
Dont be nervous of viscosity inking – a good way to start is when you are about to finish. At the end of your lino printing session, just before clearing up, I encourage you to mess around with viscosity inking; add some oil to your leftover inks and let yourself have a play with unlikely colours and shapes. You never know what kind of secret life your lino plate may reveal to you.
8 thoughts on “Lino cuts with viscosity inking”
This is amazing. Thank you. I’m certainly going to give this a try once I get some current work finished.
Fascinating report on this fascinating subject. I use water-based inks though and wonder if baby oil might work as well. I am not a printmaker… except for jelly plate printing with inks or acrylic paints. I love reading your blogs when they arrive.
You really need oil based inks as the two different viscosities work together. I have tried it on a gel plate with acrylic paint but it is very tricky, and possibly not worth it!
Hello
Thank you so much for sharing in detail, the work that you do. It looks useful to have a roller with a big enough diameter to be able to roll over your plate only once.
I admire the printmaking that you do.
Regards
Caroline
Thanks for showing the details of this process. The prints are beautiful and the red and blue in particular brings to mind for me the work of Sybil Andrews. As always, an inspiring post!
Thank you so much for a very simple and understandable description (with beautiful photos!) of this process! I am anxious to try it out, but I don’t think I have stiff enough paints. Off to purchase….
I’ll be following along.
Thanks so much for the inspiration! As always, l cannot wait to try it on an old linocut.
Is it possible to first roll an intaglio layer wipe it and then continue with the viscosity printing? l will certainly try.
Yes! that is how it works, just make sure your first layer is runny ink and follow on with stiff ink after that