Lino Cut Experiment

For my birthday this year I got a lino print kit and I finally got round to trying it out.

For my first go I decided to do a print of a stag, cos they're pretty in right now, right?

I worked from a photo and it took a while to get used to working in reverse and figure out that the bits I was taking away would stay white.

I cut around lino just so I could use the excess for other prints.

This was my first attempt at printing the lino. I tried to short cut and used an ink pad, which wasn't terrible but the black parts aren't solid black.

Then I tried printing with the printing ink the kit came with. Actually I tried painting gold paint onto the lino and printing that, but that didn't really work, so I printed with the black printing ink over the top.

I got more solid black but not a complete print, but I think that's because I was just pressing down the lino with my hand, not putting it through a printing press. So I think this is the best I'm going to get at home.