Here are some prints that I created in a reduction print class.
I composed the image from two different images that I had in my sketchbook; one an ink drawing of a doorway in my house, and one a photo of the rocking chair that I have been using throughout this project. I drew the two images together on the lino, forming them into a single interior. I then cut out the parts of the lino that I wanted to stay white, and inked up the plate to do my first print.
I really liked the mixture of black and yellow, when the stencil was inked up, more than I liked the actual prints that I obtained from it. The point of reduction printing, I was told, is to progressively cut away the stencil, adding a different colour to your existing prints each time in this way, until the image on your stencil has been completely cut away.
Because I preferred my stencil to my actual prints, however, I decided not to do this, and had to find a different method of creating multi-coloured prints. And so to apply more colours, I first inked up my stencil yellow again, and then added more colours by carefully adding more colours on top, either with a cotton bud or with smaller rollers, which worked well.
In this way I created two different multi-coloured prints, after which I inked up my stencil with yellow again and left it to dry, so that I could keep it as a separate piece.
