Mini linocuts, framed

© Peter Gander FOR SALE

For my current show, I produced this cute little trio of linocuts, A Whitstable Oyster Yawl; Whitstable Seagull and the familiar-by-now Whitstable Fish Market Fisherman. They were hand-printed onto watercolour paper with a waterbased ink in a black-to-blue blend. They are edition numbered, signed and framed in a white box-style frame.

Boat by The Street, Whitstable

© Peter Gander • SOLD (2010)

Just east of the harbour on Whitstable's shore is a long shingle spit that, at low tide, extends a kilometre northwards out to sea. It has been nicknamed 'The Street' as it is a popular walking spot. Just visible on the horizon are the Maunsell forts. See previous post for images and info on these wartime relics.

'Local mackerel' linocut, the final print

© Peter Gander Limited Edition linocut FOR SALE

So, in conclusion, though the idea of a Japanese paper really appealed (it even had wispy, sun-on-the-sea-style highlights in it), I had to abandon the idea once I saw that the fibres made the ink spread in a bad way. Thus I used a heavy watercolour paper in the end, which was ideal in the end as I hand-coloured the back of the mackerel with a metallic turquoise glittery paint to add an extra dimension. (The weekend's photo will hopefully do more justice to that). Using an oil-based ink these days is not so popular due to the hassle and un-eco-friendly nature of the cleaning products, but in this case it was necessary to print then colour afterwards with watercolour. Something that you can't do obviously with water-based inks, as they will then run once you add further colour, post-printing, by hand. Oil-based printing ink with watercolour and metallic glitter paint on 250gsm smooth watercolour paper.

'Local mackerel' linocut, inking to printing...

Using a heavy-duty craft (Stanley) knife to get rid of excess lino

All off, then I bevelled the outer edge of the fish to avoid it catching any ink

This Japanese 'Yuki' paper was intended to be used, however it was too fibrous/furry and didn't take ink well. In the end I used watercolour paper, which was just as well as I added some hand-colouring which the thin Yuki wouldn't be fit for.

Taking a rubbing with a graphite/lead pencil, 'brass-rubbing-style', is a great way to foresee how the print will come out, like a dry proofing. Albeit the wrong way round, it will let you know if there's any lines not quite working.

The complete rubbing.

I was keen to produce a vertical gradated colour effect with black on the fishes back to ultramrarine blue at its belly. The ink is then picked up on the roller where the gradation becomes more fluid as the roller goes back and forth. So the roller was used vertically here. The trick is to span the gradation only within the height that you need. Mixing/thinning the ink at this point is very tricky as you can't mess around with the blended inks too much without spoiling the gradation.

The goal is to achieve a fine 'pore' to the ink to get to a good and thin consistency. Listen out for a fine 'hiss' too as the roller runs to and fro, this is a good sign that the ink is ready. At the point that this photo was taken, it is visibly too thick, as seen on the roller.

My roller bed is virtually the same size as my intendeed paper (about 30cm deep), so I stuck (with double-sided tape) the fish down on the same size peper that will be used to print on. A piece of card on the right is stuck on the edge. This will have the 'receiving' paper butted against it to register accurately.

The fish is inked and awaiting a sheet of paper (and a printing felt over that) before the roller does its work.

A ghostly fish is visible through the thin Japanese paper. Felt is laid over this to cushion the printing matrix.

After repeat inkings and prints are made, unless you are, if you are imperfect like me, going to get ink where you don't want it. Simple cover those places up with some masking tape or paper - anything that masks the area as long as it is lower than the lino (otherwise it will also pick up ink, of course).

'Local mackerel' linocut, final cut marks, work-in-progress...

© Peter Gander

© Peter Gander

I finished the mackerel linocut last night. The lettering was rather tricksy to carve - lots of tight curves at a small size. Note that I've cut away around the outline of the fish. The lino beyond this will be cut away completely with a Stanley (craft) knife to avoid any unwanted areas picking up ink later. Then it will be mounted onto card or wood for stability and ease of registration.

'Local mackerel' linocut, first cut marks, work-in-progress...

I carve the lino initially in an outline first, to seperate the whole shape from the background (which will be cut off later and the carving laid out to register on a block). Different tools are used here for different purposes. Not that the finer 'V' tool is used to inscribe the fine ridges of the fish's pectoral fins and a wider 'U' tool ploughs out larger areas that will be white/blank, such as the belly area or outside the outline itself.

'Local mackerel' linocut, tracing down work-in-progress...

Having carefully copying the mackerel design onto tracing paper, it's ready to be flipped back-to-front and transferred onto the lino itself.

'Local mackerel' linocut, work-in-progress...

Using the tried-and-trusted and ancient method of a grid, I enlarged the reference drawing to the right size for the linocut onto tracing paper.

'Local mackerel' linocut idea

The original idea inspired by the mackerel's unique patterns. © Peter Gander

The fact that I am a big fan of fish and fishing has probably no been lost on you. And looking at a glossy fresh mackerel at Whitstable Fish Market the other day, I couldn't help noticing the fingerprint-style tiger stripes on the fish's back. With a fondness for the trompe l'oeil too, I made this particular fish undoubtedly a local one to Whitstable! This will be a hand-coloured linocut printed ready for next week's exhibition at The Horsebridge Gallery 2, Whitstable, Kent.

'Fishing boat, low tide, Whitstable'

Sea salt sits on top of the paper slowly doing its work

The final painting © Peter Gander FOR SALE

Revisiting a miniature painting that I did last year, I recently painted this larger original watercolour of a low-tide fishing boat on the mud flats of Seasalter, Whitstable. Appropriately for a painting set here, (named after the tradition of using huge shallow copper pans left in the shallows of the sea to collect salt for trading many years ago), I added sea salt to add texture to the foreground mud flats. The salt draws out the watercolour pigments leaving interesting crystalline patterns, though this time, they seem to have little impact. Something I need to experiment further with.

'I love Whitstable' colour study II

Same study with darker colours added over the top of the lighter values

Having slept on this study for a few days, I decided I was unhappy with the pale tones of study 1. So because I wanted a darker foreground, I was able to paint over the lighter one and this time give the design a warmer, deeper reddish brown which ties in more strongly with the tabasco sauce bottle too and thus makes for a more harmonious piece. I also made the blue of the sky a deeper cerulean blue.