I am doing something very similar. Literally unboxed the laser jet I ordered today. The piece I'm transferring too is wood ... will the acetone image transfer work on wood ?
Watching his process, including where things didn’t go so well, is the best part of this channel’s videos. I think I learn more from how he recovers from failure than I do from his success.
hi there! I'm a traditionally trained printmaker so I might be able to help you out :) anyway, if you really like linocut, buy yourself the best carving blades you can afford :) as you've noticed yourself, better quality blades make life so much easier.. decent quality blades can be sharpened with sharpening stones and will last you a long time.. and yes, it is a perfectly valid technique using an exacto knife to help with carving ;) we use similar knives in woodcut and linocut carving.. you should print your designs by placing a sheet of paper on top of an inked linoleum plate and rubbing the paper using a spoon or a baren.. you can find inexpensive barens that will do the job quite nicely.. you really should use a glass plate or a plexiglass plate to ink the barayer... a small ammount of ink will be enough to ink the plates you use... listen to the sound the brayer makes when you roll the ink on the glass... you want a hissing sound and not squelching sound... squelching sound means you've rolled out too much ink... when inking your plates, do multiple passes with a brayer in 4 directions: top to bottom and diagonally... anyway, those are the basics that immediately come to mind... if you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
I spent 3 years of my undergrad degree just messing around with linocuts and I gotta say that it was NEVER a chore. If you ever want to play with color, consider linoleum reduction as a technique - it’s kind of like christmas every time you reveal the results! You hit all the important points of Lino skill: good sharp tools, use glass or plexi to roll the ink, experiment with transfer techniques. I usually draw my stuff directly, but I’m old school.
Reduction prints are fun! You will definitely need some registration so your paper prints correct each time. I just make cardboard registration plates to fit each block and paper size.
Right on, Jeremy! I appreciate you expanding our horizons. I did some block printing way back in high school. Maybe I’ll take it up again. - Rick, USMC
I think the phrase “Perfect is the enemy of good.” applies here. Not that I don’t think the prints came out awesome, they definitely did! But I find that I don’t branch out and try new arts because of perfectionism. So thanks for sharing your learning process, including the parts that didn’t work. I recently wanted to try power carving with a dremel. I already had a decent dremel kit, bought a $14 set of carbide bits, and made my first carving (and Ice King portrait) on a piece of pallet wood. I learned a lot, and actually love the imperfections and places things didn’t “go right”. One of my favorite crafts I’ve made recently - and am now going to try and mold and cast to make multiples copies of the carving.
My mom likes to tell me to focus on one craft and master it. I love learning to be a jack-of-all-trades! There's so much fun to be had. You're an inspiration for me to keep learning, experimenting and having fun.
Just want to give you a shout out that you kind of restarted my love for crafting and give me something to keep from getting stir crazy during the lockdown phase of covid. I got into making terrain and miniatures because of you and once things started opening up I started taking ceramics classes through my local parks district and while that has become my new craft of love I still love doing and learning different things. Last summer during the open studio at my ceramics studio my teacher gave me a rundown on lino cutting and although I'm similar to you of not being a master of illustration, though you're much better than I am, I've been having a blast with it and love it for the same reasons as you were saying. Thank you for bringing joy into my life and sharing your interests and passions with the world!
I used to work a Gutenberg press at the Renaissance Festival with hand cut blocks. We had everything from fairies to St. George Fighting the Dragon. One of the best times of my life
I absolutely recommend the Flexcut palm chisel sets for this, they come super sharp, and i've used them for 15 years on wood. The travel set is fantastic
Oh man I remember getting to do that in my high school art class (minus the wood glue image transfer). It was always a kind of zen process once you got going. Great work!
Dude, it's so cool that you did this. Showing the entire process; the experiments, the failures, and the successes, is absolutely crucial. It's so important that people know that they can try different crafting projects, outside of their comfort zones, and learn valuable skills and gain experience.
I learned block printing in high school--back when we had actual art classes lol-I love it. Someone else has probably said this already, but they make lino blocks that are already on wood bases. They are steadier to carve and easier to print with. I was taught to lay the paper on the block and use a brayer to press it so it's evenly inked.
I freaking LOVE block printing, stamp making etc. It’s my preferred art. Please please get a carving bench hook so that it holds your block and you don’t risk cutting your hands you can also place the paper on top of the block and use the back of a spoon to transfer the ink from the block to paper. I’m so excited that your excited I keep talking to the video. I’m a nerd!
I LOVE block printing but haven't done it for years. You've inspired me to pick it up again. With very detailed designs, burnishing is a big help: once the paper is stuck to the ink, turn the whole thing over, paper and block together, then use the smooth back of a spoon to sort of polish all over the design. A thin, tough paper, like rice paper, is a big help. Good luck! Hope you become (another) addict.
It's a slippery slope! Today it's printing small lino blocks with a roller, before you know it you're reading up on which organs you can sell to afford an etching press...! Anyway, if you enjoyed lino printing, you owe it to yourself to try the multi-colour subtractive process. It makes the whole thing more nerve-wracking when you have a limited number of prints of your first colour and you've already carved more off your block so you can't go back, but it's also far more satisfying and gives you so many more creative options!
Oh! And if you can't find a convenient sheet of glass just use a clean baking tin. Or melamine-faced panels, or more or less anything else non-porous that isn't going to get damaged by whatever you need to use to clean the ink up afterward.
Oh wow, I completely forgot about block printing. Awesome stuff! Also, it was nice seeing you stop by during Rogue Hobbies live stream yesterday to congratulate Louise! Well done sir.
It is really cool you could enjoy this detailed work so much and find it relaxing especially given your hand shake struggled you have had. This might help your motor skills a lot as well. They look awesome. These would be great for D&D games, posters, pamphlets or even print on clothes, dice bags and so on. You could make a stamp for your work with the BMC logo or your name / initials.
The best thing I have found for doing toner transfers are Chartpak Ad Marker - Colorless Blender markers. You just lay down your print out the way you were doing and color through the back of the paper. It’s super quick and easy! Great video, love the jack of all trades approach to making!
Block printing rocks. I havent done it in awhile and you just brought that desire back again 😊 Thank you for showing us how its done. The good and the bad of the craft
Saw your video last week and I was instantly hooked. Ordered some basic tools and ink and started making my own prints the very next day. Thank you so much for the explanation and ideas.
If you wash the linoleum with washing up liquid and warm water and dry it before transferring the designs, you will find the designs transfer much better.
Congratulations on not gouging your hand! Especially that small. Glueing it to a hard back definitely helps. I normally will use nail files to sharpen my blades (the sandpaper style). Wood block is my favorite to work with. Something about having the wood grain in the print does it for me. The famous 4 riders of the apocalypse was an end grain wood print.
I took a printmaking class last semester, so I thought I'd give you a few tips I learned: 1. We used MDF for our block. 2. Whether you use linoleum or MDF, make sure you have the right, and properly sharp tools! Tool quality in carving is paramount! 3. The way we transferred our images was to trace over it in graphite or charcoal, then press it into the block (as if doing a reverse print, onto the block).
Your art style definitely looks slick on block prints. Like, it looks like some old-timey artwork from folkstories or something. Really cool, and informative! Bit of insight into block printing, very neat! Also, finding a new creative method that is fun and relaxing is always a huge win!
Dude! I had an art class in high school where we did this, and it was low key one of my favorite mediums to play with. I've been eying the stuff for this at the art store the past couple years, I gotta get back in
I don't know if you have this or if its even possible with the materials but was wondering if you could etch onto the linoleum using a laser etching machine. Could mean you could do more detailed block prints like the goblin
The content you put out is always so inspiring in an intoxicating way. I wanna get out there and craft thanks to you! Appreciate it. Your channel is a joy to watch.
I just got back into using fountain pens for urban sketching, so of course, I have to go looking for good waterproof inks to go with the watercolor so I don't ruin my drawings. Then I fell down the ink rabbit hole. I am imagining these block cuts with some of the really cool shimmering and sheen inks. There is even an ink I use that only shows up in black light for my player hand outs. This block cut video just gave me a bunch of ideas. Thanks Jeremy!
Now you need to try out reduction block printing! I agree block prints always have a very cool feel whether they are done super well and detailed or a little rougher
Block printing has always fascinated me as well Jeremy! Yours look fantastic! Guess I am going to have to give this a go too! Thanks so much for the inspiration! Lisa
I would like to thanks you so much! I've started to follow you one month ago and i've discovered a real joy in making by myself all the stuffs i need to play better D&D with my friends inspired by your channel. Always interesting videos and good tips to improve our creativity. Really really thanks a lot❤
Lino printing is amazing And actually the chisel are mainly used for large areas. scalpel are the best thing for details 😊 Carbon paper or tattoo transpher paper is your friend
I remember doing this in school when I was in high school around 1984 luckily I attended a Polytechnic school and I was able to take many elective classes this helped me to learn how to do many different things in my life A shout out to my fellow Benson polytechnic high school in Portland Oregon United States
That's so cool! I agree that there's a visual unity in stuff made with the medium, even the art nouveau one you showed in the beginning. I'd *guess* that it's something about the crispness of the borders/contrast. I'm playing Okami right now, and I know that was (obviously) inspired by brush type art, but a lot of traditional Japanese art was also woodcuts iirc? And I'm thinking I've got to go looking to see if anyone has done Okami prints like this because I think the result would be stunning.
Yeah that part about "don't let a lack of materials limit you"....um not quite with you on that one. Just use what others advise you to use bro, it makes life a lot easier. Thanks for the video and your hard work!
Yea, people usually forget that part or don't know it and end up using the quote incorrectly. It's a lot more interesting and true in full. Imo at least.
A way that I transferred my images onto the lino is by using carbon paper. This also helped in my cutting and visualizing my positive versus negative space via the creation of muscle memory.
You could also use the iron for the toner transfer. This is often used to make homemade PC boards. Glossy paper or better yet magazine pages work well.
I always wanted to see how well these would be at making battle mats. You could make ones for chests, furniture, beds, walls, rubble, corpses, and so on. Even plot out different room sizes.
Try double printing the design you're using for the acetone transfer. It will give more toner in the paper to make the transfer darker on the linoleum.
try placing parchment paper over your carving block and using an iron to heat it. This will soften the material to ease carving. You can also use heat from an iron to transfer a design from a laser jet print instead of using glue. Applying heat will soften the bond of the powder from the paper and bond it to the carving block.
Try using an iron to transfer your print out to the carving block (works with laser printer only). If its a fresh print out, it should transfer pretty great.
When my kids were toddlers I used to cut a potato in half, let them draw a shape like a star or heart on the flat cut side, then I'd cut it out like I was block printing. We'd happily spend a rainy afternoon doing potato prints. Just getting them ready for cool stuff like this blockprinting when they are older.
The prints came out looking great! Don't know how the linoleum would react, maybe leave fuzzies, but a rotary tool work great carving wood. Might be a good avenue to investigate.
I remember learning about block printing in high school. It was fun but slightly expensive with the linoleum and ink. I wonder if the materials have become more affordable? I'll have to look into that. Thanks for another great video.
Linocut printer for many years - so many great comments that there's little to add! A potentially useful item you can easily make is to have something to push the block against while you're carving so you're not carving with one hand and pushing with another. I cannot for the life of me remember what they're called, but they are a board with like a raised line or L-shape on top so you can nest your block there and carve against it, and on the bottom of the board is a hanging lip of wood so you can hook that at the edge of your table. I used it particularly when I was doing large woodblocks, due to them being harder to carve and manage, and I had one that was just a 1'x2' piece of wood about 1/4" thick, with a long lip about 1" square attached to the bottom and an L-shape of those same pieces attached on top. May not be useful as you're currently using linoleum and small pieces so they're easier to cut and maintain, but if you go larger/use wood and/or find that holding it with one hand and carving with the other is annoying, then it might not be a bad thing to have (and easy to make one yourself).
You can use copy paper to transfer. Or print out the design, go over the back of the paper with pencil, and place it pencil side down on the rubber block. Use pen to draw the design, and the pencil will be transferred as your draw. No need to wait for anything to dry, just get to carving.
Someone probably mentioned this in the comments already, but if not... You'll get way better results using what's called a printing baren and placing the block design side up, putting the paper on top of that, and then rubbing the paper with the baren to get your image imprint. Basically outside of using a press roller, this is how the majority of people do block printing. Be sure to use a layer of something like wax paper between the baren and the print paper to protect the baren from ink or other mess. It also reduces rubbing friction as print making papers tend to be toothy. You can get a decent baren for as little as $5-$10. I spent more for a ball bearing style baren for about $40 and it works amazingly well but even the cheap $10 ones work great.
Great craftsmanship! I am not a carver but I am a tattoo artist, and I think that if you put the acetone on the linoleum and then put the stencil on it, on the tinted side, it is possible that the drawing will stick better, as happens when you are going to place a tattoo stencil in the body
I just read through the comments and saw quite a few ideas that he said he'd try. It would be nice to see a follow up video of him trying some of the comment section recommendations. I did this once at school and failed spectacularly. Its amazing what minimal time, materials, and talent can give you. Maybe I'll give it a crack again. It is a cool aesthetic .
Blockprinting is a lot of fun! And be careful with som other similar techniques like dry point or metal engraving, they are adicctive. Another form to transfer the image to the block is mirroring your image before printing and put a sheet of carbonic paper (with some adhesive tape to fix it) between your design and the printing block, then redraw all over the image with something sharp like a ballpoint pen. The carbonic paper will transfer your image to the block, ready for just just carving it. You will not have to troubles with the PVA layer.
Great job and ya know what, I'm exactly the same way, I pick up new crafty hobbies seems like every couple years, work on it, get good at it, get bored move on lol😅same with the music sometimes i get so into it I dont even realize that the music stopped or Netflix is asking if i want to continue watching whatever I put on for background noise. Great job and I've been wanting to try this, when we were kids, we did it with potatoes and an ink pad
It would be a little extra work, but I bet you could use the same kind of transfer paper as a tattoo artist uses. They transfer great onto fake skin(mine are like rubber bands) and only require a small amount of dry time. I use just a green deodorant stick and once dry it's basically stained.
More expensive cutters are great, but dont scare folks, even with the cheap ones that come in sets. You can still get a great print with cheap tools. When i started i had literally the cheapest stuff available. Trick is keep a strop close by and strop the blades often, i found that was enough to keep stuff sharp for the most part
Get a good sharpening stone and some light oil. 3 in 1 should work. And carefully sharpen your chisel blades a bit before every carving session. If the chisel seems to have a problem cutting, resharpen a bit to touch up your edge. Even cheap chisel blades will benefit. You can probably find a TH-cam vid somewhere showing you how to do it.
I'm sure there will be many of us who used to do this in our school days - using carbon paper to transfer an illustration, carving up linoleum mats (and maybe a bit of your skin), rolling on some ink, and carefully peeling the print off. I really feel for my H.S. art teacher - he must have been a bundle of nerves having all those kids using carving tools. I may even have one of those old prints laying around...
Beginning Printmaking was a brutal class in college for me due to adhd, I left a metal plate in an acid bath over the weekend and they almost kicked me out. sigh. Oh well. some of it was super fun. Something you could try and I think you'd be into would be to get some transparent inks, the traditional old school Cyan Magenta and Yellow. Then you can try your hand at basic 4 color comic style pieces. If you were into some of the old horror comics that could be really fun. Or try some metallics and you could do some really cool IoT art. Skys the limit, its your art. Its print making but doesn't need to only be print making, you could use ink shades or painting on the paper before you lay down the print, even print over stuff you've printed out on the laser printer. Or see if you can get laser etch onto the linoleum or use wood blocks instead (or maybe even FOAM!) The try some different art papers. Oatmeal paper super textured, watercolor paper might take ink differently, handmade papers with fibers and weird stuff can add to the print, making your own isn't hard either, we did it in a high school art class. Didnt Craftsman do an image transfer video? I think we did it with hairspray and xerox copies back in HS. Also: Your prints turned out awesome. great job!
Looks like rubber stamp not linoleum. I like linoleum but it's denser and sometimes requires heat to soften, also a bench hook will help prevent mistakes and cutting hand (just a wood block with a lip on one side to hook to table, another on opposite to hold your linoleum).
Is it possible to 3D print blocks, or is it only possible with something soft like linoleum? That way you just raise the details on your designs in a 3D sculpting program. Great designs!
They're brilliant - love them! There's nothing at all you did 'wrong' - developing your skills just right. Couple of things I found made life easier, good old carbon paper to trace down my images, and made myself a simple bench hook from a piece of ply (A4, 10x12 ish) with a small bead of timber (1/2inch square or so) screwed along either end - one on top and the other below to anchor to my bench. Could then use gouges securely and lino stayed put on the ply (any sheet material fine). Can buy them but where's the fun in that?!
BUY THE PRINTS HERE: www.blackmagiccraft.ca/store
I am doing something very similar. Literally unboxed the laser jet I ordered today. The piece I'm transferring too is wood ... will the acetone image transfer work on wood ?
Would a gentle sanding, or greenie scrubbing remove the film left by the carpenters glue?
@@michaelanderson2166 maybe…but it would have also removed the image.
The best thing any content creator can do for the art community is showing their trial and error. Well done.
Always!
Watching his process, including where things didn’t go so well, is the best part of this channel’s videos. I think I learn more from how he recovers from failure than I do from his success.
Nooooo! Don’t introduce me to ANOTHER craft! These look great!
hi there! I'm a traditionally trained printmaker so I might be able to help you out :)
anyway, if you really like linocut, buy yourself the best carving blades you can afford :) as you've noticed yourself, better quality blades make life so much easier.. decent quality blades can be sharpened with sharpening stones and will last you a long time.. and yes, it is a perfectly valid technique using an exacto knife to help with carving ;) we use similar knives in woodcut and linocut carving..
you should print your designs by placing a sheet of paper on top of an inked linoleum plate and rubbing the paper using a spoon or a baren.. you can find inexpensive barens that will do the job quite nicely..
you really should use a glass plate or a plexiglass plate to ink the barayer... a small ammount of ink will be enough to ink the plates you use...
listen to the sound the brayer makes when you roll the ink on the glass... you want a hissing sound and not squelching sound... squelching sound means you've rolled out too much ink...
when inking your plates, do multiple passes with a brayer in 4 directions: top to bottom and diagonally...
anyway, those are the basics that immediately come to mind... if you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
Yes to everything. Jeremy, here you have the true master.
I love how you've been spreading out into other creative crafts beyond making terrain and painting minis for D&D!
I spent 3 years of my undergrad degree just messing around with linocuts and I gotta say that it was NEVER a chore. If you ever want to play with color, consider linoleum reduction as a technique - it’s kind of like christmas every time you reveal the results!
You hit all the important points of Lino skill: good sharp tools, use glass or plexi to roll the ink, experiment with transfer techniques. I usually draw my stuff directly, but I’m old school.
Reduction prints are fun! You will definitely need some registration so your paper prints correct each time. I just make cardboard registration plates to fit each block and paper size.
My first multi color print had me feeling like a wizard 😂
Right on, Jeremy! I appreciate you expanding our horizons. I did some block printing way back in high school. Maybe I’ll take it up again. - Rick, USMC
I think the phrase “Perfect is the enemy of good.” applies here. Not that I don’t think the prints came out awesome, they definitely did! But I find that I don’t branch out and try new arts because of perfectionism.
So thanks for sharing your learning process, including the parts that didn’t work.
I recently wanted to try power carving with a dremel. I already had a decent dremel kit, bought a $14 set of carbide bits, and made my first carving (and Ice King portrait) on a piece of pallet wood. I learned a lot, and actually love the imperfections and places things didn’t “go right”. One of my favorite crafts I’ve made recently - and am now going to try and mold and cast to make multiples copies of the carving.
My mom likes to tell me to focus on one craft and master it. I love learning to be a jack-of-all-trades! There's so much fun to be had. You're an inspiration for me to keep learning, experimenting and having fun.
Just want to give you a shout out that you kind of restarted my love for crafting and give me something to keep from getting stir crazy during the lockdown phase of covid. I got into making terrain and miniatures because of you and once things started opening up I started taking ceramics classes through my local parks district and while that has become my new craft of love I still love doing and learning different things. Last summer during the open studio at my ceramics studio my teacher gave me a rundown on lino cutting and although I'm similar to you of not being a master of illustration, though you're much better than I am, I've been having a blast with it and love it for the same reasons as you were saying. Thank you for bringing joy into my life and sharing your interests and passions with the world!
Thank you!🙏
I used to work a Gutenberg press at the Renaissance Festival with hand cut blocks. We had everything from fairies to St. George Fighting the Dragon. One of the best times of my life
I absolutely recommend the Flexcut palm chisel sets for this, they come super sharp, and i've used them for 15 years on wood. The travel set is fantastic
Agreed, they are reasonably priced too, once you look at higher end palm gouges lol
Oh man I remember getting to do that in my high school art class (minus the wood glue image transfer). It was always a kind of zen process once you got going. Great work!
Dude, it's so cool that you did this. Showing the entire process; the experiments, the failures, and the successes, is absolutely crucial. It's so important that people know that they can try different crafting projects, outside of their comfort zones, and learn valuable skills and gain experience.
I learned block printing in high school--back when we had actual art classes lol-I love it. Someone else has probably said this already, but they make lino blocks that are already on wood bases. They are steadier to carve and easier to print with. I was taught to lay the paper on the block and use a brayer to press it so it's evenly inked.
It’s not often you get the full quote, it charges the whole meaning!
That said, I think you nailed this one!
Hell yeah, you should be proud of these! I might cop one next paycheck!
I freaking LOVE block printing, stamp making etc. It’s my preferred art. Please please get a carving bench hook so that it holds your block and you don’t risk cutting your hands you can also place the paper on top of the block and use the back of a spoon to transfer the ink from the block to paper. I’m so excited that your excited I keep talking to the video. I’m a nerd!
Everything you do just makes me happy, as watching you do stuff shows that it can be done, making entry into arts easier
"don't ever let a lack of materials stop you" is genuinely one of my life mottos.
Its right up there with "fake it till you make it"
Didn't expect to get into a whole new art form this evening but here we gooo! Those prints look so awesome!
Amazing! They fit the Shadowdark aesthetic that I am in love with!
Bought both before I finished the video! 😁
Awesome! Thank you! Now I gotta look up what Shadowdark is.
Oh nevermind, I’ve seen shadowdark before and it looks AWESOME
Aaaaand I just ordered it
I LOVE block printing but haven't done it for years. You've inspired me to pick it up again.
With very detailed designs, burnishing is a big help: once the paper is stuck to the ink, turn the whole thing over, paper and block together, then use the smooth back of a spoon to sort of polish all over the design. A thin, tough paper, like rice paper, is a big help. Good luck! Hope you become (another) addict.
I love seeing you explore your different artistic outlets
It's a slippery slope! Today it's printing small lino blocks with a roller, before you know it you're reading up on which organs you can sell to afford an etching press...!
Anyway, if you enjoyed lino printing, you owe it to yourself to try the multi-colour subtractive process. It makes the whole thing more nerve-wracking when you have a limited number of prints of your first colour and you've already carved more off your block so you can't go back, but it's also far more satisfying and gives you so many more creative options!
Oh! And if you can't find a convenient sheet of glass just use a clean baking tin. Or melamine-faced panels, or more or less anything else non-porous that isn't going to get damaged by whatever you need to use to clean the ink up afterward.
Oh wow, I completely forgot about block printing. Awesome stuff! Also, it was nice seeing you stop by during Rogue Hobbies live stream yesterday to congratulate Louise! Well done sir.
Thank you for showing me how easy it can be to just start to do it! I've wanted to do this with my drawings for a while now.
It is really cool you could enjoy this detailed work so much and find it relaxing especially given your hand shake struggled you have had. This might help your motor skills a lot as well. They look awesome.
These would be great for D&D games, posters, pamphlets or even print on clothes, dice bags and so on. You could make a stamp for your work with the BMC logo or your name / initials.
The best thing I have found for doing toner transfers are Chartpak Ad Marker - Colorless Blender markers. You just lay down your print out the way you were doing and color through the back of the paper. It’s super quick and easy! Great video, love the jack of all trades approach to making!
2:11 Testify! "Don't ever let a lack of materials (or tools) stop you from trying new things. There's always an alternative."
I LOVE Lino printing just wish I had more time to do them. Great job 👍♥️🌈🙏
Block printing rocks. I havent done it in awhile and you just brought that desire back again 😊
Thank you for showing us how its done. The good and the bad of the craft
What a great journey! The extra detail on the knight looks incredible
Saw your video last week and I was instantly hooked. Ordered some basic tools and ink and started making my own prints the very next day. Thank you so much for the explanation and ideas.
If you wash the linoleum with washing up liquid and warm water and dry it before transferring the designs, you will find the designs transfer much better.
Makes sense. I’ll try that next time.
Congratulations on not gouging your hand! Especially that small. Glueing it to a hard back definitely helps. I normally will use nail files to sharpen my blades (the sandpaper style). Wood block is my favorite to work with. Something about having the wood grain in the print does it for me. The famous 4 riders of the apocalypse was an end grain wood print.
Awesome work! linocut/printmaking is such a cool artform and its rad to see you working with it! Great designs!
I took a printmaking class last semester, so I thought I'd give you a few tips I learned:
1. We used MDF for our block.
2. Whether you use linoleum or MDF, make sure you have the right, and properly sharp tools! Tool quality in carving is paramount!
3. The way we transferred our images was to trace over it in graphite or charcoal, then press it into the block (as if doing a reverse print, onto the block).
Your art style definitely looks slick on block prints. Like, it looks like some old-timey artwork from folkstories or something. Really cool, and informative! Bit of insight into block printing, very neat! Also, finding a new creative method that is fun and relaxing is always a huge win!
block printing is fun! I did an assignment for one in college, I'd love to do it again.
Dude! I had an art class in high school where we did this, and it was low key one of my favorite mediums to play with. I've been eying the stuff for this at the art store the past couple years, I gotta get back in
I don't know if you have this or if its even possible with the materials but was wondering if you could etch onto the linoleum using a laser etching machine. Could mean you could do more detailed block prints like the goblin
You can do that!
The content you put out is always so inspiring in an intoxicating way. I wanna get out there and craft thanks to you!
Appreciate it. Your channel is a joy to watch.
I appreciate that! 🙏
love to see you branching out your video's! block printing seems such a good match for your style!
I love block printing. Haven't done it for a couple of years after high school. This makes me want to start again. Just another hobby to start.
I just got back into using fountain pens for urban sketching, so of course, I have to go looking for good waterproof inks to go with the watercolor so I don't ruin my drawings. Then I fell down the ink rabbit hole. I am imagining these block cuts with some of the really cool shimmering and sheen inks. There is even an ink I use that only shows up in black light for my player hand outs. This block cut video just gave me a bunch of ideas. Thanks Jeremy!
Now you need to try out reduction block printing! I agree block prints always have a very cool feel whether they are done super well and detailed or a little rougher
Badass. This channel has been such an inspiration.
Block printing has always fascinated me as well Jeremy! Yours look fantastic! Guess I am going to have to give this a go too!
Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Lisa
Superb video. Thank you.
I would like to thanks you so much! I've started to follow you one month ago and i've discovered a real joy in making by myself all the stuffs i need to play better D&D with my friends inspired by your channel. Always interesting videos and good tips to improve our creativity. Really really thanks a lot❤
I loved block printing in my AP art classes back in the day. Linoleum carving was so fun. This vid makes me want to get back into this so bad
Seeing you take up block printing made so much sense to me. Great designs!
Looking forward to seeing you make your own printing press! 😂🔥
Lino printing is amazing
And actually the chisel are mainly used for large areas. scalpel are the best thing for details 😊
Carbon paper or tattoo transpher paper is your friend
I taught printmaking for 26 years To make carving easier heat the lino to soften it makes carving easy and yes proper carving tools are a real need
I remember doing this in school when I was in high school around 1984 luckily I attended a Polytechnic school and I was able to take many elective classes this helped me to learn how to do many different things in my life
A shout out to my fellow Benson polytechnic high school in Portland Oregon United States
Been wanting to try this but was unsure where to start. This was incredibly informative and I just ordered the same starter kit from amazon.
That's so cool! I agree that there's a visual unity in stuff made with the medium, even the art nouveau one you showed in the beginning. I'd *guess* that it's something about the crispness of the borders/contrast.
I'm playing Okami right now, and I know that was (obviously) inspired by brush type art, but a lot of traditional Japanese art was also woodcuts iirc? And I'm thinking I've got to go looking to see if anyone has done Okami prints like this because I think the result would be stunning.
Wood block and linocut are awesoome
Yeah that part about "don't let a lack of materials limit you"....um not quite with you on that one. Just use what others advise you to use bro, it makes life a lot easier. Thanks for the video and your hard work!
These will make neat prop bits, like maps/ scrolls. Or even texture on something, like posters.
I have never heard the second part of the saying, I dig it. Thanks for the video. Looking forward to a block print shirt next Adepticon.
Yea, people usually forget that part or don't know it and end up using the quote incorrectly. It's a lot more interesting and true in full. Imo at least.
A way that I transferred my images onto the lino is by using carbon paper. This also helped in my cutting and visualizing my positive versus negative space via the creation of muscle memory.
During carving you can soften the linoleum with a little heat from a junk clothes iron. Cuts like butter.
You could also use the iron for the toner transfer. This is often used to make homemade PC boards. Glossy paper or better yet magazine pages work well.
I always wanted to see how well these would be at making battle mats. You could make ones for chests, furniture, beds, walls, rubble, corpses, and so on. Even plot out different room sizes.
Try double printing the design you're using for the acetone transfer. It will give more toner in the paper to make the transfer darker on the linoleum.
try placing parchment paper over your carving block and using an iron to heat it. This will soften the material to ease carving. You can also use heat from an iron to transfer a design from a laser jet print instead of using glue. Applying heat will soften the bond of the powder from the paper and bond it to the carving block.
Try using an iron to transfer your print out to the carving block (works with laser printer only). If its a fresh print out, it should transfer pretty great.
When my kids were toddlers I used to cut a potato in half, let them draw a shape like a star or heart on the flat cut side, then I'd cut it out like I was block printing. We'd happily spend a rainy afternoon doing potato prints. Just getting them ready for cool stuff like this blockprinting when they are older.
Cool knight. Really "brightened" my day.
This was good. Thank you.
Interesting change of pace from the usual terrain building videos
The prints came out looking great! Don't know how the linoleum would react, maybe leave fuzzies, but a rotary tool work great carving wood. Might be a good avenue to investigate.
I remember learning about block printing in high school. It was fun but slightly expensive with the linoleum and ink.
I wonder if the materials have become more affordable? I'll have to look into that.
Thanks for another great video.
Linocut printer for many years - so many great comments that there's little to add! A potentially useful item you can easily make is to have something to push the block against while you're carving so you're not carving with one hand and pushing with another. I cannot for the life of me remember what they're called, but they are a board with like a raised line or L-shape on top so you can nest your block there and carve against it, and on the bottom of the board is a hanging lip of wood so you can hook that at the edge of your table. I used it particularly when I was doing large woodblocks, due to them being harder to carve and manage, and I had one that was just a 1'x2' piece of wood about 1/4" thick, with a long lip about 1" square attached to the bottom and an L-shape of those same pieces attached on top. May not be useful as you're currently using linoleum and small pieces so they're easier to cut and maintain, but if you go larger/use wood and/or find that holding it with one hand and carving with the other is annoying, then it might not be a bad thing to have (and easy to make one yourself).
You can use copy paper to transfer. Or print out the design, go over the back of the paper with pencil, and place it pencil side down on the rubber block. Use pen to draw the design, and the pencil will be transferred as your draw. No need to wait for anything to dry, just get to carving.
My fiancé majored in this in college! Its so awesome! Try a multicolor print next!
Someone probably mentioned this in the comments already, but if not...
You'll get way better results using what's called a printing baren and placing the block design side up, putting the paper on top of that, and then rubbing the paper with the baren to get your image imprint. Basically outside of using a press roller, this is how the majority of people do block printing.
Be sure to use a layer of something like wax paper between the baren and the print paper to protect the baren from ink or other mess. It also reduces rubbing friction as print making papers tend to be toothy.
You can get a decent baren for as little as $5-$10. I spent more for a ball bearing style baren for about $40 and it works amazingly well but even the cheap $10 ones work great.
Cool! That's a really neat project to make your own merch!
Eyy I just found that Emil video the other day. Because I have also been looking into Block Printing. And you have *excellent* timing.
Can you refine the details with a dremel ? Or is the carving pad not great for dremel cutting
looks great man, love the skellies, im gettin Mignola
Great craftsmanship! I am not a carver but I am a tattoo artist, and I think that if you put the acetone on the linoleum and then put the stencil on it, on the tinted side, it is possible that the drawing will stick better, as happens when you are going to place a tattoo stencil in the body
It’s worth a try!
I just read through the comments and saw quite a few ideas that he said he'd try. It would be nice to see a follow up video of him trying some of the comment section recommendations.
I did this once at school and failed spectacularly. Its amazing what minimal time, materials, and talent can give you. Maybe I'll give it a crack again. It is a cool aesthetic .
Did this in art class in year 11. Was a lot of fun carving it out of the tile. Wish i still had it.
That skull guy came out super cool!
Blockprinting is a lot of fun! And be careful with som other similar techniques like dry point or metal engraving, they are adicctive. Another form to transfer the image to the block is mirroring your image before printing and put a sheet of carbonic paper (with some adhesive tape to fix it) between your design and the printing block, then redraw all over the image with something sharp like a ballpoint pen. The carbonic paper will transfer your image to the block, ready for just just carving it. You will not have to troubles with the PVA layer.
Great job and ya know what, I'm exactly the same way, I pick up new crafty hobbies seems like every couple years, work on it, get good at it, get bored move on lol😅same with the music sometimes i get so into it I dont even realize that the music stopped or Netflix is asking if i want to continue watching whatever I put on for background noise. Great job and I've been wanting to try this, when we were kids, we did it with potatoes and an ink pad
It would be a little extra work, but I bet you could use the same kind of transfer paper as a tattoo artist uses. They transfer great onto fake skin(mine are like rubber bands) and only require a small amount of dry time. I use just a green deodorant stick and once dry it's basically stained.
Super cool! Time to go learn this myself now. :)
More expensive cutters are great, but dont scare folks, even with the cheap ones that come in sets. You can still get a great print with cheap tools. When i started i had literally the cheapest stuff available. Trick is keep a strop close by and strop the blades often, i found that was enough to keep stuff sharp for the most part
Get a good sharpening stone and some light oil. 3 in 1 should work. And carefully sharpen your chisel blades a bit before every carving session. If the chisel seems to have a problem cutting, resharpen a bit to touch up your edge. Even cheap chisel blades will benefit. You can probably find a TH-cam vid somewhere showing you how to do it.
I'm sure there will be many of us who used to do this in our school days - using carbon paper to transfer an illustration, carving up linoleum mats (and maybe a bit of your skin), rolling on some ink, and carefully peeling the print off. I really feel for my H.S. art teacher - he must have been a bundle of nerves having all those kids using carving tools. I may even have one of those old prints laying around...
Beginning Printmaking was a brutal class in college for me due to adhd, I left a metal plate in an acid bath over the weekend and they almost kicked me out. sigh. Oh well. some of it was super fun. Something you could try and I think you'd be into would be to get some transparent inks, the traditional old school Cyan Magenta and Yellow. Then you can try your hand at basic 4 color comic style pieces. If you were into some of the old horror comics that could be really fun. Or try some metallics and you could do some really cool IoT art. Skys the limit, its your art. Its print making but doesn't need to only be print making, you could use ink shades or painting on the paper before you lay down the print, even print over stuff you've printed out on the laser printer. Or see if you can get laser etch onto the linoleum or use wood blocks instead (or maybe even FOAM!) The try some different art papers. Oatmeal paper super textured, watercolor paper might take ink differently, handmade papers with fibers and weird stuff can add to the print, making your own isn't hard either, we did it in a high school art class. Didnt Craftsman do an image transfer video? I think we did it with hairspray and xerox copies back in HS. Also: Your prints turned out awesome. great job!
Looks like rubber stamp not linoleum. I like linoleum but it's denser and sometimes requires heat to soften, also a bench hook will help prevent mistakes and cutting hand (just a wood block with a lip on one side to hook to table, another on opposite to hold your linoleum).
Yea the first stuff I used was definitely more of a rubber.
Nice! I did my first lino cut last week for my buddies horror podcast and it was a blast!!
Very cool. I am seriously tempted to try it now. Cheers!
Giver!
Is it possible to 3D print blocks, or is it only possible with something soft like linoleum? That way you just raise the details on your designs in a 3D sculpting program.
Great designs!
Could you proint something on your cricket and transfer that to block print? Takes away the crafting aspect, but may enable very detailed prints?
They're brilliant - love them! There's nothing at all you did 'wrong' - developing your skills just right. Couple of things I found made life easier, good old carbon paper to trace down my images, and made myself a simple bench hook from a piece of ply (A4, 10x12 ish) with a small bead of timber (1/2inch square or so) screwed along either end - one on top and the other below to anchor to my bench. Could then use gouges securely and lino stayed put on the ply (any sheet material fine). Can buy them but where's the fun in that?!
I thought about making one of those and probably will at some point!