Linocut is slow. That's the point.
After a summer of moving fast on bikes, there's something specifically satisfying about a medium that doesn't accelerate. You can't undo a cut. The block tells you when it's ready.
The Design
Subject: a trail marker post at the edge of a wood, late afternoon light, the kind of shot you'd take on a phone if you remembered to stop. The original sketch was thumbnail-sized; I scaled it up to A4 on tracing paper, then transferred it to the lino with carbon paper.
Three colours in the plan: a warm cream (the paper itself), a mid-tone brown for the shadows and mid-ground, a darker forest green for the trees and the foreground shadow. Reduction process, meaning you cut from the same block for each layer.
Reduction linocut is slightly unhinged. Once you've printed a layer and cut away the parts you want to preserve, they're gone. You can't go back. Print enough copies to cover your mistakes before you cut.
I printed fifteen. Lost three to registration problems, one to a large air bubble, and two to a colour mix I didn't love. Ended up with nine I was happy with.
Layer One: The Cream
The first layer is just the paper. I inked the block with the brown mix and printed a key block — mostly shadow shapes, mid-ground trees, the post itself.
Let it dry for two days. Lino printing ink takes longer than you think. I have rushed this before. The result is smearing and resentment.
Layer Two: The Brown
Went back into the block with gouges. Took out everything I wanted to remain cream — the sky, the lighter parts of the path, a few highlighted edges.
The registration on a second layer is always slightly anxious. I use a simple jig: pins through the paper at marked points on the block. Works reliably. Still anxious.
Layer Three: The Green
Final cut, most aggressive. Removed almost everything except the dark tree shapes and the foreground shadow masses. The green is a forest green leaning slightly warm — raw umber mixed in.
By this point in a reduction print, the block looks abstract. You're cutting based on what you know should be there, not what you can see.
The Result
Nine prints. The one I liked best is now on my wall. The process took about three weeks of evenings.
Reduction linocut teaches patience and commitment — two things that mountain biking also demands, in different ways, and that I remain imperfectly in possession of.