Laura Boswell ARE – Printmaker

Combining Japanese woodblock and lino

Adding Linocut detail to a Japanese woodblock print

In this print the landscape is a watercolour Japanese woodblock print. The woodblock is printed using damp paper and watercolour mixed with rice paste. I wanted to add the fine detail in lino (thanks to my detail wood cutting knife being in need of repair) so I cut a block - you can see two little registration slots cut in the lino to position the paper to align it with the rest of the print using the Japanese kento registration system). I then mixed an assortment of waterbased inks and some mica powder to print the silvery honesty seed pods and applied it with a brush. Once printed it was uneven and wet, but fine after being blotted with newsprint. The paper stayed damp throughout the process to keep the registration accurate (normaly I work with dry paper for lino, Japanese woodblock always uses damp paper). The silvery waterbased ink had enough extender added to keep it transparent so the landscape shows through the seedpod. Finally I printed the black outline. I used oil based black ink for this so there would be no danger of it bleeding, but still printed on the damp paper. In the final picture you can just see the silvery shine of the pods which will show much more when the paper dries.