Crow Silhouette, Lino Print

This print was made for IMPACT 12 (International Print Conference), Big Print. When I attended Stephen Fowler’s Rubber Stamp Archive (One Day Workshop) at UWE Bristol, Sarah Bodman invited us to take part and very kindly gave us lino blocks to carve.

Apart from making the Mother Shipton Print in 2019 I realised that I had not really made any lino prints since my Art Foundation many years ago.  I made a drawing from a photograph taken in 2016

This photo was taken in Friary Gardens, Cardiff. I eventually enticed the crow down from the Tree with some dried mealworm and saw what a beautiful bird it was with gorgeous shiny black feathers.

For the Lino Print I made a simplified drawing of the tree.  I then traced over it in pencil and transferred the image to the lino block by going over the back with a pencil. I also needed to re-draw bits onto the lino block itself. 

It was quite difficult to carve with all the branches – similar to the Blackbird Silhouette Rubber Stamp. I don’t have a lot of photos of the process because I just started carving and had to keep going, afraid that if I stopped I would lose the plot with it 🙂 I was also losing daylight – so the last photos aren’t great.

I printed it with a Versafine Ink Pad and a Japanese Bamboo Baren. I wasn’t sure if an Ink Pad would work too well, but was fairly pleased with the result. The lino was then posted off to IMPACT 12, Big Print and printed along with an number of other lino blocks.  I didn’t have the chance to attend on the day it was printed so unfortunately don’t have any photos of the final Big Print that was made.

IMPACT 12, Big Print

Summer of Print and Books IMPACT 12