Linocut

A step-by-step guide on how to create personal and contemporary linocut prints.

A linocut is a relief print created by carving a design into a printing block. It is the uncut surface, not the carved away areas, that gives you your image when you roll it with ink, lay paper on top then apply pressure to produce a print.

With 18 easy-to-follow projects that can be adapted to suit your own ideas, experienced printmaker Sam Marshall guides you through the whole process – from the drawing to the carving to the inking to the printing – of creating your own beautiful prints and handmade cards whether you are working from your kitchen table or a more advanced studio set-up.

By taking inspiration from everyday life, Sam helps you to build your confidence with observational drawing. Featuring step-by-step projects, the book demonstrates a range of skills with low-cost materials to produce simple linocuts, reduction linocuts and colourful multi-block prints. You will also learn more experimental techniques such as combining monoprint, chine collé, jigsaw linocuts and rainbow rolls and pick up handy tips on subjects such as 'noise' and editioning your prints.

Beautifully illustrated with photographs of Sam's own drawings and linocuts, and featuring the work of 5 talented printmakers, Linocut is an essential guide to linocut printmaking. Packed with creative and practical advice to guide and encourage you, whether you're just starting out, returning to the craft or looking to expand your printmaking skills.

About the Author

Sam Marshall is a printmaker living in rural Northamptonshire with her mini dachshund Miss Marple. She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art for her BA and gained an MA level Diploma in drawing at the Royal Drawing School where she now teaches. She has a print studio in her garden where she makes all her work – linocuts, drawings and etchings.

Sam runs online drawing and printmaking workshops that attract students from all over the world. Her work is autobiographical: it always starts with a drawing and tells a story, which often features Miss Marple.