Linocut: Introduction to Printmaking and Creating Hand-Cut Stamps

1. Introduction : Hello and welcome to the class in this class. We're going to play with Liner and we're gonna go from looking at what the different materials R two D mystifying how to use the different blades and to make something that looks really complex, look and feel really simple. The focus of this class is going to be creating a more traditional print as well as a stamp , so that you can see what sort of liner lifestyle you want to live because you want to live your best liner life. I get it. So I'm going to problem solve and show you a few tips and tricks that I've picked up along the way, and I'm excited for you to join me. Liner can be such a fun and therapeutic medium, and I think that often people make it a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. So prepare yourself to have fun and engage in something that is going to be very relaxing. You can create either the traditional prints or urine stamp as part of the class project, and I just want you guys to have so much fun with me because I'm so excited to meet you on . If you want to follow me, please feel free to do so. And remember, posting a class project is not a scary thing. It's a really cool way for us to connect and share our creativity. Okay, Cool. Let's get creating. I will see you in the next video. 2. Materials: Okay, so in this video, we'll be looking at what you need to start your line of Prince. So liner comes in a variety of forms. One example is this packet Onda. Basically, this version is a vision that has a sort of hissy and sacking at the back. It's actually quite a hard version of liner, um, even though it's the G original gangster version of it, I actually prefer the one I'm showing you now, which has to smooth sides. So you'll need a Breyer, which is the fancy word for the roller that you need. You can get them in different sizes. I have to, and I'll show you how I would use different sizes for small ones like the stamps will make . And then I would use the larger one for the larger print that we will make later in. In terms of ink, we're going to be using the speedball language is water soluble. You also get oil tanks, but the water soluble ones a best for beginners. Now we look out the liner cutting tool so you can get ones that fit into your hand, but the ones that I have have Individual Blade's that fit into the top, and you'd very carefully make sure not to slash your fingers while you do that. And when you're finished, you can stick the little accompanying stick into the hole and keep all your fingers intact as you remove the blade and, of course, will need some drawing tools. So a six B four B very soft pencil. A gamma Raisa is good, but you can also just use any other type of your Raisa and, of course, some past ALS. Uh, you could also use Conte Crowns. It doesn't really matter as long as they are that soft, chalky texture, and you'll see why later. So we need a wide one on a black one in lieu off black hunting ground. You can also use a pencil. I am going to use this terror off palette to use as my thinking surface. You'll see how we do this later, but basically what you need is a flat surface for your roller, and normally you can use a glass. But I like using is here off pallets and in paper, any paper will do on Duh yeah, get creative with your paper because it doesn't need to be a heavyweight paper at all. And then tracing paper is also optional when I show you how we can transfer images and words onto the liner in a later video. And, of course, the weapon off choice for the zombie apocalypse. The Mighty Spoon. You basically just put your finger into the body off the spoon, and we can use this instead of Baron as a nice, easy access, cheap way to transfer out prints onto paper. So we're all set to get creating. See you in the next video. 3. Composition : Okay, So before you start, you need to think about what you actually wants out of your liner prince and what methods you're gonna use. So when you think about line Oh, you can think of it in terms of a negative photograph. But you could also think of Liner in terms off a rubber stamp which were all very familiar with my mom is never done liner before. And she did liner with me a few weeks ago and she just couldn't wrap her head around what the picture was gonna look like at the end and eventually as it okay, but just think about a rubber stamp. So whatever's raised will be the color of your ink. And what it was cut out will be missing, just like this picture on the back here. So I think that we have all had a lot of experience with rubber stamps, and it becomes really exciting when you start thinking about how you could make a liner print that could fit onto a rubber stamp, and it just makes it seem a little bit more approachable and a little bit more normal. And later on, I'm gonna show you how you can actually make your own rubber stamps with liner because you know you might not want to make thes fine art. Limited edition prints with Liner You might actually just want to make cute dog owners that are stamps. So in keeping with the rubber stamp analogy, remember that everything that's carved out will come out as whites, and everything that's raised will be your stamp. Okay, so if you keep that in mind, there are two ways that you can create your liner image. So the first way that we're going to look at is the way that maybe you see the most traditional liner prints created again. So if we want to play with the rubber stamp analogy, the first way that you could make a liner is by leaving the picture behind as the race. But right, so that is what will be, in this case black because we used black ink. So here you can see what the liner plate actually looked like after we've carved everything away so you can see that the tree is in black and it has been lift raised and is a dark agree because it's the smooth plate off the liner that's left behind. Lina also has a very interesting thing that you can do where you can leave strokes in the background, and the way you do that is when you carve it out, you basically don't call it low enough so that you get these little strokes. And that needs an interesting texture on the background. That not only adds texture to your drawing, but also shows that it's a lot of prints versus say and itching or some other form off principle, despite having to have, like, really good planning. For all I know, there is some space for spontaneity and imperfections, which already, like, okay, method to this is my personal favorite. I think it's because I really like the look, but also because I find it the easiest to do because basically you cut out the line work and the land work is the color of the paper, so typically white and the background is a nice solid color. So protest for this is making sure that your background is a nice shape because it needs to be perfectly shaped so that the final piece looks super pro. Now you can obviously be creative with whatever the shape is that you want. But just remember to keep your arts looking intentional. In this case, the line work is going to be what's wides? So this is completely opposite to the previous example. But in this example, what you need to remember more so than in the last example is that you are creating a mirror image. So when I placed the plate down, what I'm going to get is the image on the right, even her on the left, he's facing the left. Now, this was kind of a happy accident. I actually had somebody come up to me and say, Oh, wow, I really like it because it looks like it's just something about it is right Excuse the terrible pun, but I mean in English, we read from left to right, and he's reading a book. So it was a happy accident. What is not a happy accident is what happens when you forget that it's a mirror image and you try to write words present my greatest floor and yeah, let's just say it didn't come out. Is dude when I, uh, been a stamped it so uh, it's OK. It was an accident. It taught me a lot. And I'll show you how to do words just now. But back to the crow, I want to show you the best life hack that I have ever received. So you see that black? Yeah, we're gonna make the background black, and we're going to use a white Conte crown to make the line work wides. So imagine that this was a clean, uncut piece of liner. What I'm gonna do is everything that I want to be white and everything that I want to cut out. I'm going to draw with White. And this can really help because firstly, you can erase consecration very easily. But also, you can get an idea off what the contrast is going to look like, right? So if I wanted to do this the opposite way where I wanted to make the tree in black, I could take my Conte crayon and draw my amazing black tree. And then I would not Okay, Everything that is left behind will be white, and everything that is drawn will be black. So I miss Just make a mental note not to cut black, and you do cut white or Gray e. Whatever's lightest is cut and whatever starkest is left behind. And I feel like that really changed the game because it helped me to understand what my final picture would look like. That so black stays behind and you would get that kind of image and you would cut away all the gray. And in my case, I would draw the guy in whites and cut all of that away. Now, of course, if you don't have consequence, you can also just use a pencil. I find it really difficult because you can't really see the pencil as well, like it shines and you can see it if you look really carefully. But I find the consequence much easier to see without really having to work on. It will think about it, so this method would work exactly the same. So in this case, your pencil can either be the black Conte crown or the white, so you can either decide that your pencil is what is staying behind and what is not going to get cut. Or you can say, OK, these are gonna actually be the wife lines, and I'm going to draw the white lines with the pencil, but it's up to you. It's completely up to you. I find it less confusing to use a black under white cause in my brain doesn't have to think about what the pencil mark actually waas, but again, you use what supplies you have used, what you're comfortable with. And maybe you're just smarter than I am. So you can actually work that one out and not be as confused as I get. There's no right or wrong. These are just hacks, so and again you can erase the pencil. You can. You raise the concert, crowned you can. You don't fix your mistakes. It's really nice because you haven't cut anything it so there's always backsies, and you can also just use a really nice softy razor on DA. Take it away. If you really feel like the image is distracting you and you're not going to know what's going on, I normally am really Daisy and just end up looking at like what it was the darkest line and being like that, that's the final line, but obviously it's much Nita and much easier as a process. If you raise it properly and as long as the razor soft it weren't damaged the liner And it's really nice because you can start over. And no matter what type of Linux you using, you can use the same techniques. So, for example, if you do have a different color liner than the very traditional normal obstacle stuff, such as the light, a gray one, you can obviously see it the pencil much easier on that one. So you don't necessarily have to use the consecrate. I'm just gonna put out it out there that the speedball company makes an amazing pink, one that I am dying to try. It's also a soft cut, so it means that it's much less strenuous to actually do your final. But anyway, whatever you decide to use, you can use the white Conte grounds for your actual lines. You can use your black consequence what needs to be left behind. Imagine everything is a stamp on and just have fun because you can erase anything and you can start again. So you know it's never too late. And if you don't end up with a piece that you like, just enjoy the process because making honor can be very therapeutic. And in the next video, we're gonna actually start cutting and looking at the mock secure you can create. So I'll see you then. 4. How To Cut Lino : in this video, we are gonna actually cut something. Yeah, so you just get a random piece that you've cut off with the pair, scissors or craft knife because you should practice before you go into your main piece on D , which is going to take all the blades out and go through them one by one if they'll ever come out. Okay, So what we're gonna start with is the weird flat one, which is number five. OK, so they go in descending order. So the smaller the number, the smaller the blade. Cool. So this guy basically just makes straight lines. So if you want to make really find guidelines so that you don't overshoot while you're cutting, you can use this. I guess you could also catch your liner with that if you go deep enough. But like that seems really like a bad plan. So again, So now we're gonna change over to the round one. So this is the number for which you can't really see in real life. It's also pretty hard to see, and we're just going to start with how to hold the blade. So basically, what you gonna do is you're going to try and make a 45 degree angle. So you basically gonna hold it like that, slide it along and then flick it up as you lift. So it's kind of like a swish and flick kind of motion, but you're going to get really slowly. You're gonna be really controlled and you're not gonna push really hard. It's always tempting to push hard, and I think that that is the biggest mistake that you could make in line out because there are no backsies. So basically, you cradle the device in your hand and you hold it like a pencil, so you'll find a position that works for you. As soon as you start cutting, you'll start feeling what feels right on. You know, I just love your best blade cutting life. You hurt like everyone holds a pencil slightly differently. So hold it in a way that's comfortable for you. And basically, yeah, you just gonna put a little bit of pressure on it and you'll see that it cuts quite deeply quite quickly, and the first thing you could do is like us. It just go slow and just go soft. You can always cut more away. So for comparison, we're going to move to the next size, which is a number three, which is still around. Blade. Obviously be careful putting it in and out. Andi, try and just use the same amount of pressure so that you can get a nice feel for how thick each line it's. You know how how thick a catch the blade can make. So this is a number two. I feel like number two, even though it's still round. It's a much nicer transition between the full and the to, because what you'll see here is that even though I'm pushing the same amount, the two and three are pretty much the same size. There's not really a massive difference. So for safety sake, just be aware of where your fingers are at all times. So I am a control freak, so I tend to strangle pins and brushes, and I'm no different with liner. You can see that I try and hold it as close to the bottom of the blade as possible, and I'm sure that one day that will lead to bad things. But for now we're going to yellow it cool, so you can see here that there's quite a big difference between the four institute. And it's not that big a difference between the two and three. But now we're gonna go to my favorite blade of all, which is the number one, which is a V shaped blade. And this is how you get your detail marks. Look at that. I mean, isn't that gorgeous? Look at how beautiful and skinny and sexy that ISS. So, for comparison's sake, I'm gonna push really, really hard. Then you see that there's that sort of like whites stretched edge around the liner as compared to the other slices. Where was really soft, and you can see that the liner is actually become a little bit distorted. And what's gonna happen is that you're not going to get a clean line, so rather do soft cuts and then just cut into the same place again and again. If you needed to be deeper, you can see the difference between our for our three out to both versions of R two and R one, and you can see there's not really that much difference between the three and the two. But there is a massive difference between the two and the one. Yeah, So if I go away, Andi, I do lots off soft little cuts on the same space. You can see that there's actually a very different age. It's very subtle, but printmaking is all about subtleties. So where I pushed really, really hard you can see that this sort of more jagged edge versus in the one with multiple shallow cuts, and that's why it's a better option to do it that way. You also more control and control is quite important with the liner. So to illustrate control, you can see here that you can actually use a liner blade almost the same way that you would use a pen or pencil. You just have to be aware of the fact that it is cutting, so just make sure you understand that limitation. And that's why it's really fun to sort of practice on a spare piece because you know you can practice getting beautiful, straight lines that are uniform, but you can also practice doing sums. Quigley's No. That is what happens when you're not in control, and that will sure, in your parents you will get a nice, jagged white mark they without any ANC, and it's going to be very messy looking. So unless there's something you want, I would highly recommend always just doing soft, slow and controlled movements and play. Have fun. Okay, so we'll start making things in the next video. 5. Creating Writing on a Print: Okay, So I wanted to throw in a quick bonus video just for a one more technique off. How you can, uh, get an image onto your liner plate before you started cutting it. So you may feel like you are inspired by a picture and you're feeling a little bit insecure about, like, you know your techniques and you're drawing abilities. But you really want a trial. I know. So you can just find an image that you really like. This one actually happens to be a liner cut, and you can take a quite a a soft pencil. So, like I'm using a six b here so that this it has a lot of late deposit Will did graphite deposit on the paper, and basically, you're just gonna trace your image like he would Normally what you're going to find is that you can maybe be inspired during the process and just start sort of, you know, tracing a few things that you like leaving some things art, you know, start feeling your own style coming through. Okay, so now we have our image. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get our liner plates, and we are gonna turn the image so that the drawing is face down is that the graphite is in contact with the liner and you're going to secure your piece of paper. You can even use tape. If you want to do this, you can use washing tape. I just push down, ready hard and try and keep it in place. Andi. Then you're gonna color really, really hard over everywhere that has a drawing or has some line work. You can do the whole piece, but like there's really no points and it's it's a bit of a waste of time and effort, but, um, yeah, this is just a really fun way to transfer your image. And what's nice is that because this is a radio mirror image off the image that you traced , what will happen is that when we cut the liner and prints it, you will actually get an image that's exactly the same as the original. And I mean, you can use us for an illustration that you did that you really want to transfer, and you wanted to be perfect. It's I mean, it's the next best thing to having a light box because I mean, you can't really use some hot box liner that meet on. That's nice, because you can make a sketch in your sketchbook and then transfer directly onto the liner and you know that it's gonna look exactly the same. So when you're done, you're gonna have a very light impression that the camera can't really pick up. But you're gonna take your black Conte crayon and you're gonna make it a little bit more refined. So in this case, are amusing the black because I drew what was left behind. So remember everything. That's why it is something that was cut away. So I'm gonna use the black to show what I need to leave behind before I go crazy with my cat. So the true true joy off this piece comes when you want to add some writing to line up because you can try and mirror language if he wants. I'm not saying that topography cannot be murdered. It's perfectly able to be done. I am not very good at it. So the easiest way to do it is just to write whatever you want onto your transfer paper and then you turn it over. Andi you transferred onto your liner and that where you get some perfect topography and you'll just have to cut around it or cut into it, depending on whether you want it to be white or black. And in this case, I wanted to show you that you can also use a Conte crowned to do your tracing, which leaves a little bit more residue behind. So you can also just directly put that onto your liner, and it's a lot easier to see. See you can skip effectively. That other step. It's just not as refined. I know that's how you don't get the mistakes that it previously CEO. It'll be great. And, uh, I can save you some time and it's years hopefully. Anyway, I'll see in the next class where we going to start looking at how to actually make these cuts. 6. Creating a Larger Print: Okay, so welcome to the video where we're going to talk about making a composition on your liner . So I decided to go for around composition and for some mountains because I thought that months are really easy to draw. And then we can all do this together regardless of drawing skills. So when you do mountains, it's really easy. You just draw drag, jagged lines upwards, try make them irregular because everything in nature is usually irregular. And, yeah, just don't overthink it next week to think about where our lights is coming from. So the our indicates where the lights coming from is going to come from your left or your right. But now remember that this is gonna be flipped over, so you really have to think about like your left is your right and your right is to lift. So it's say we're gonna have it coming from the right. I would actually make the hour from the lift. See what I mean? Because now it's on the right. Very, very confusing. But its its not that bad. Once you wrap your head around it, just again. Think of the stamp analogy, eso wherever the light is coming from. We're just going to do another little jagged, almost like triangle on the side of the mountains. And this will sort of just give us a bit off dimension cause light is really important in liner prints because you only have black and white try it. So everything That's why it is going to be in lights if that makes sense. And I'm gonna make it light by cutting it out, which is why I'm gonna use the white Conte crayon, or why pastoral, depending on what you have. And I'm gonna color that in to remind me that I'm gonna cut that out. And I'm gonna use Black to remind myself that if I am going to leave the sky white as well , I haven't quite decided yet. But if I'm going to leave that white, I am going to make make a line between the mountain and sky office. Um, and now I think I'm just gonna add a bit of texture to the mountains by just creating little lines to indicate different planes. So basically, just where the rocks change not doesn't need to be super accurate liner is not really a medium full super accurate, detailed drawing. It's more medium for creating nice graphic shapes. And I think that's what's really important to think about when you actually make your composition is how few shapes can I use to creates the image that I want, because remember that our brains already smart One of the things that it's designed to do is to organize abstract shapes into a finite sort of final picture. Okay, and I'm just gonna add some trees. Um, I eventually decided not to go with the use trees, um, in the way that I did them because I forgot that inner liner is a very line based composition. So, you know, you can't You can't make trees like that as easily as you can make just very easy skeleton trees. And, um yeah, And then I just added another field type thing in front and yeah, it's ah, it's all spit up because I kind of just was busy looking at my composition and seeing, you know, am I going to make the back, um, black? Or am I gonna make it wides? And, uh, I started off thinking maybe I'll make a wreath, but then I don't know I wanted to create something that everyone could make fairly easily. So I decided eventually to go for clouds. But if you did want to do a wreath you could on and I will show you how to do that in the next video where we will make a stamp. So I decided to just go for a nice print, that kind of which just a nice abstract drawing. And for clouds again, you can get away with a lot with liners, so things aren't supposed to be necessarily photo realistic. They actually lanner often looks best when it's very illustrative CIA. And then I was going to do the clouds in black. But then I decided that actually wanted to have white clouds because I thought that the contrast would be more interesting between the mountains and the clouds. So basically, I just colored in everything that I wasn't going to cut, and I was going to do snow. But then I decided, again stood, which is why it's so fun to use these Conte crowns because you really, really can play around and, you know, really play with what your line is gonna look like before you start cutting, which is really, really important cause once you cut its its tickets, you know it's there forever. So for clouds, you know, just make sure that you have a long bottom line and then just make sort of a puffiness. You know, again, clouds like mountains. They're really nice because you can't be wrong. You know, it's the more abstract, the more weird, the better they are. So whenever I sought cutting, I always start with the number one, which is the tiny little V shaped one, because you get really, really nice lines. And basically what you're going to do is pretend that your child and your coloring in a coloring book, because you're gonna outline the shapes that you're going to cut out, that you get a nice, crisp outer edge, just like when you were coloring it in a coloring book. You know, you get that nice, crisp age by outlining the shape and then filling in the color, and I mean, you can do this by cutting out each individual thing. But the tiny blade is quite tedious, so I originally started out thinking that I was going to do the whole thing with the tiny blade, but you'll see that I switch over to another method in a bit. So basically what I decided was that I wasn't actually getting anything out of using the tiny blade except by making more work for myself. So I used the tiny blood to make those beautiful, crisp outer edges. Andi, make sure that you get your perfect lines with it. But then I would highly recommend changing to a much larger rounded blade to color in the shapes effectively because it just it's less tedious. Onda also, your blade will lost longer because you'll be using different blades rather than just the same, or played a long time. So basically, I started off doing the trees as sort of very well green, a read fleshy trees. And as I was cutting it, I just realized that this particular type of liner, which is the, uh, it's sort of a compressed linseed and cook, Um, board. It's It's very hard, so you can get as nice rounded edges as you can with the type that we're going to use in the next video, which is a much softer, mawr rubber like version. I think it's basically mostly just compress linseed oil. And yeah, So I swapped halfway to just making a tree the good old fashioned way by doing little V's that all fold into each other. And with Lina, you'll see that this may seem very childlike and not very. I don't know what we consider fine artist grade. Um, but it turns out well in liner because liner is not about that. It's It's about getting beautiful, clear graphic shapes se Ah, So I then had to sort of do a little bit of recovery. So I had to make that tree a little bit thicker because I'd already made some cuts, Which is again, why? You really need to think about what you're doing before you cut. But the next trees looked really good, and you can see that they already in um, in this picture before we even in corrupt, you can start seeing what the cut is gonna look like, which is again something really nice about using the light and dark consecrate. One of the not so nice things is obviously how dirty your hands get. But you know, you kind of everything. So again, with the clouds, I started off doing the edges, and we're going to get a nice clean edge. And, uh, yeah, I think the clouds we were really started realizing Oh, yeah. Actually, I need Teoh. I need to use a bigger round a cutting blade so that I can get some nice, deep, clean cuts for the clouds. Because, of course, the mountain shades Onda shadows and highlights. You know, you can get away with, um, with a lot, but I think with clouds I mean, you can't have black speaks in your clouds, You know what I mean? Like at least not with the style that I was going for. So the way that I got my black outline was that I basically had to make a line. So you cut out the whites and in you cut out like a white age on either side, which then will leave a black line when we anchored on DA. That's OK. It's just you've got to remember to leave enough space to actually do that in your composition. So now I'm just swapping over to my bigger blade. I think that this is the number two because I didn't want to go to large because again. Once you've cut, it's gone for good, right? So always got up in small increments. And if you find that she wants a larger blade, that's fine, because you could always, you know, cut Maura way. You obviously can't cut. Let's go away. Andi basically just ended up going around my clouds. What's nice is that, um, if you slightly curved your blade as you're cutting, you can get some really, really nice rounded edges. So if we look close up here, you can see that I basically will start flat and then I'll just do a slide slide curve as we end just to get that, like, really nice, really clean, rounded edge, Um, and thus is again practiced. This is a motor skill, you know you're not going, Teoh, get this right. The first cut you ever make. Even I'm still learning. That's what's really nice about art is that there's always room to learn and to improve and to grow. And that's something that's really, really fun and really, really inspiring about us because there's so much room for us and because there's no right or wrong way to do something, Um, you have so much room Teoh to explore. But you can see this is much Foster. And, um, it's just much easier at this particular like version of liner, which is the version that normally has that hissy and backing is very, very hard. So by the end of this, my hands were quite tired. Yes, I was quite glad that I had actually switched up. Also, it means that you get em or consistent, more clean edge, because instead of doing multiple lines, I'm only doing one cut out. So this pros and cons to each thing you know, um, not as much control, but with a larger blade. But you do get nice consistency and you get to clear out large areas very quickly. So this is just spit up. And I'm going to just leave you to see me cutaway tirelessly because I think there's something really nice about putting on some music and just you know, you've made your composition. You really don't have to think about anything too hard. You're literally just thinking about cutting away pieces and switch to a larger, much larger. I think this is the full to cut out the background, cause you really, really want the background to be cut out as much as possible Software's You'll have a very satisfying pile of cuttings, and I will see its ink in the next video. 7. How to Ink: Okay, so now things get really exciting. We're getting to the final stages of testing out our liner, so we're going to get a piece of paper ready, and you're gonna put thes smooth side down because that's the part that's going to be against your stamp, your liner cutting, and I'm getting out my think. So I'm using speedball water soluble ink in black. You can also use oil based ink, but I feel that for beginner, water soluble ink is quite nice. It's much cheaper, and it's much easier to clean off everything. So I want to show you what happens when you ink is not the right consistency. So basically, I'm going to show you what happens when the ink has not been shaken properties, and I'm just shaking it up for you. But you can see that those two drops are part off the binder, which has separated from the pigment. So even though I have mixed it up a bit, the binding payments started to mix a little bit. But it's still really, really watery, and there's a bit of lumpiness. Andi. You'll see that even if I try and really force it together using the Breyer, which is the fancy name for the religious. In case you want to be fancy at dinner parties and such, and you'll see that you can The ink stay is really, really liquid Really runny, really See through. And this is the wrong consistency. So just a quick tip. If you don't have long nails, you can put your two fingers on top of the Braille like that and ah, rollaway that Ah, you know, I just have long they'll separate it. Prefer to just hold it. Um, you know, solidly at the in, sort of like a paintbrush. But yeah, so you can see here. I'm gonna fight with it. And I'm really gonna try and make it work just to show you guys what happens. So I've got it to a place where it was as thick as it could be. Have been doing it for quite a while. But you can see that as I am rolling it onto my liner. It's kind of just running everywhere, and this is because it's too watery. So if you don't have the right consistency for your ink, you're gonna end up with a picture that has not very crisp ages, so you'll see what I mean. Now, sir, my papers down smooth surface down because I wanted to be a Smith's possible. You can't put the rough surface down if he wants. It's up to you. Depends on the texture that you once you're obviously it more texture if you use texture the texture side of the paper. So traditionally we tend to use the smooth aside and basically you're just going to take your spoon and you're gonna rub and rub and rub and rub forever and ever, and you put your thumb there just to provide a little bit of pressure. It doesn't have to be a lot of pressure, um, but just to give it that extra and you can see it's quite Macy, this ink everywhere, and it's just this is what happens when you have the wrong consistency. So even though the consistency is not great, we can use this as a test print to see way we still need to cuts. The part of the process off making liner is looking at your first test print and seeing where INC is touching areas that are supposed to be wide so that we can cut those out again , and that's a normal part of the process. So it doesn't mean you two did anything wrong. So now I have mixed thing even more, and this is a bit better. Can you see? It now has a sort of toothpaste e like look and look how much thicker that IHS If you roll back to the video, if you want to compare them, you can. But look at the difference. You can already see that I am going to have to work much less to get a nice consistency, and you can see that it's already starting to get more goopy, if that makes sense. So basically what she wants is you're gonna roll and roll and roll, going to the different directions just so that you get a nice feel where it feels like the Breyer when you left it up or is almost stuck to the paper and you'll get like a nice sound . And you can see look how shiny and moral like the surfaces compared to last time. And as we put it on, you can already see the ink is not uncontrollable. It's sticking to just the areas where we're placing it. It's not running over. The edge is we don't have an excess off the ink, and it's much easier to see where the white is white and the black is black, and there are still a few pieces where we could cut away Mawr. You can see where this, um, black ink going on, too, areas that are supposed to be white in the background. But I decided to make an executive Haasis decision and see what the print looked like with them left in because I thought, you know, I actually want to have a look at you know what it looks like if I leave a few of those, you know, telltale liner marks behind. So I wasn't holding my paper as strongly as I should, which will lead you to moving the paper a little bit. And it leads to a fuzzy image, which you'll see when I left now. But again, I actually just want to focus on things not to do in this video just because it's so easy to make a perfect print or whatever once you know what you're doing. But as a beginner like, it's really hard to know what you did wrong. So I'm going to show you a few things that I know that I did wrong just so that you don't have to make them or if you do make them, you know what went wrong. If that makes sense, so you can see it's a little bit fuzzy, but you can also see that there's a few areas where the ink has not had time to properly, um, be absorbed by the paper. So if you hold your paper really, really stole, you can always take a peek. See if there's any white areas where they should be black areas on, and you can just run the spoon over those areas a little bit more and see what happens. So even though it's a little bit fuzzy, uh, it actually it's much better in terms of at least the black areas, and you can see that as a second test prints. It was actually quite successful. So once you finished problems shooting, you think should be nice and thick, like toothpaste, and your Breyer should almost stick to the paper as you'll see now. So can you see that? You know, it's it's got like a nice, very goopy texture, and it's really shiny. And what you gonna do? You gonna put a uniform amounts on and it's going to come out beautifully and this was my final image. 8. Creating A Hand Cut Stamp : I am going to show you guys how to make a stamp, and with us, we can just reinforce you know how to make it liner cuts, how to print it and also just how to work on compositions. So let's start. So if you've ever done a class of me for, you know, that I do love animals. So I'm going to try doing a little fox because the fox is quite a nice, iconic animal, and we're going to see how few marks we can make to create an effective fox. So we using a different type of liner here. It's a more robbery liner. It's the liner that has, um, a smooth side on both sides. It doesn't have the backing, so I don't think it has a high Coke content, if any at all. And I personally prefer this a lot more. So Speed will also makes a version of this that's pink, that I have never tried personally better. I've mentioned before, I'm quite intrigued by it most because it's pink, but also because it looks like this nice, soft cut liner, which also allows you to have a lot mawr like flexibility in terms of having round cuts. And I also feel like it's a lot less if it on your hands, which is always nice because you really don't want to give yourself a repetitive strain injury while you're having fun during ought. So basically I just did a little fox on and there's its tail and I was going to do a wreath and then have a branch like projection. But then I had to think about what's gonna be black and what's going to be wise and because I was making a stamp and I wanted the fox itself to be outwards and for the background to be lights, I decided that a branch was not really the best option if I was going to do it. The other way around with the background was solid and then the cutout was white. Ah, Branch would have been fine because it could have got some really nice, delicate branch projections. But I decided again stood in the end, which is less you can develop as you got rights. So basically we're just going to start doing the outline because you should always do it the way you would color in a coloring book, right? So you do you outline and then you start taking away the inside cause then you know that you're not gonna overshoot your mark. So unlike the clouds and mountains in this example, the outline is to keep the in in a dark area contained so that I no way on the outside I'm going to cut away. So basically, now I'm just doing little for kind of V shaped little marks on the tail off the little fox so that we get like a nice, very looking thing. So basically, again, you're just going to use your 45 degree angle slowly, apply pressure and gently left out again. There's no rush. You know. No one is asking you to make this liner prince in like, five seconds. We're doing it for fun, and it's very therapeutic process. If you kind of get lost in the cuts, you know, so make it as stress less and stress free as possible, because, I mean, that's what we have for right to have fun. So if you do that and you do nice, gentle strokes, you also get like a nice organic look to it. So, in terms off for I always trance, say, rather take little chunks out and do individual little irregular lines because hair is irregular, right? It's not something that is a perfect line, and it's also something that's made up of a lot of little lines. So the closer that we can imitate that in our cutting marks, the more realistic it's going to look. But just remember, you know, we only have two colors here. We have a dark tone and a light own. So unlike a pencil drawing, where you could make a lot of variation by, say, layering the pencil here, you need to just be very careful to remember that you are still making a graphic shape overall. So here we have a bit of a conundrum, cause the backing is going to be white. But the tip of a fox's tail is also white. So what I did is I sort of outlined it in the same way that I would do the mountains. So basically you cut around a darkened age, leaving a black line effectively behind. But I felt like that was not organic enough, so basically I just sort of cut irregularly into the line, which If you look close up, it leaves little pieces that are gonna be black behind so that it will create the sort of impression on the line but without having a solid line left behind. So here we actually using that that idea and that technique of using leaving some of the liner cutting behind to actually make the image off the stamp. So that's quite fun when you can use some of the I don't know quirks off the art form to enhance your heart. So always remember with food that you need to think about the directionality off the first . So that's why I flipped my liner around, because obviously the fox is going Teoh the tail for goes down at dinner. And, uh, now I'm just gonna do some very, very light flicks into the tail just to give it some extra Phiri appearance. And if you think it looks really messy right now like it does, and this is one of those things that every artist has to deal with, which is this sort of ugly duckling stage or a donor electrical at the abominations take change because it's the part way your work starts to look like you've made terrible mistakes and it is irredeemable, and you should just chuck it away. And you just need to work through that because most of the time you either will come out with a picture that's a lot better than you thought it was gonna be, um, or you will come out with something that kind of didn't work out, but that you learned a lot from so without. It's always about the process rather than the actual final piece that you make. If you make a final peace, that's gorgeous. That's always a plus. But the process is what we learn from rights. You don't learn from perfect outcomes, so if you stop now at the ugly stage, you'll never learn what it looks like when you come through on the other side. So did you resolve the ugly phase all where you right to get rid of it at that point? And the more you do it, the more you'll starts and no yourself. So quick notes about leaves with leaves. You can actually literally just draw a little triangles on a curved line, and all you do is at the base of the triangle where the line on the triangle meet. You just have to make a little cut into it to make it a little bit more as spurs rounded delicate and there's a leaf boom so the eyes were always very, very stressful. Um, so I've slowed down the video again so that you can see those, um, honestly, like, you need to be really careful about eyes because human beings are we really focused and drawn two eyes. So when we do eyes, we need to make sure that we almost make them the focus off the picture. In many cases, so here, or you need to do is just be patient and very slowly just carve out the shape off. In this case, I did sort of little sleepy eyes that look like they sort of have nice long lashes And yeah , that's that size for you. They don't have to be complex, but they do have to be meat. Unfortunately, a t least with the style that I'm doing this in. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to cut out my main lines so that I work out what's supposed to be black and what's supposed to be white because you really want to make sure that your outer lines are really, really good so that you get a nice, strong, clean image. And now I'm just gonna do little curves. Tiny little curves always use small steps If you if you can. And I'm just gonna make little knows you could make it round I made it, Ah, heart, Because why not on? I'm just gonna basically keep cutting out some pro tips while you're cutting is just to remember the direction off the most delicate parts off what you're doing. So, for example, I'm really worried about the eyes. So in this case, I will cut around the eye in the direction off off the I. But the blade will never point towards the I if that makes sense, because if I overshoots and if I make a mistake and cut into the for that is something that technically could maybe be salvaged if I make a mistake and hit into the eye, that's going to make a disaster, and I'll probably have to start again or create a piece that has no eyes. So just remember that when when you're cutting, you know, what? I mean, Don't cut with the blade towards your hand. And don't cut with the blade towards any pieces that are particularly delicate, rather like force away from you or force away from the delicate lines. So even here, you'll see that I'm going sort of around the year with the shape of the year. I'm not going to go towards the hero of the tail and rather gonna follow the shape. Um, and that's just, you know, something that you learn by making mistakes and cutting up our eyes and things like that on along the age always kind of go towards the edge because if you overshoot and go off the edge of the paper, will the liner on paper. But if you go off the edge of the liner, it doesn't matter because, yeah, that's not part of your artwork. So it can be as messy as you like. Um, if you cut into your fox, however, that's a problem. So again, just think about where you have the most control. And basically, I'm just gonna touch up on da just slowly start removing everything, which is really fun, and you can see that the US liner. Even with my hand movements, you can see that this letter was much softer and much easier to use, So I would recommend us. But I did want to show you both types of liner that I have come into contact with. So yeah, I'm just basically I mean this one as well. It's also I'm just gonna cut around and stop making the negative space and try and make that as deep as possible without actually going through the stamp. And I'm going to show you the thinking in the same video this time because we've already gone through sort of problems solving with thinking. And there's not gonna be a problem shooting with this because I can see it's got a nice toothpaste like feel. And I've got a smaller Breyer this time because it's small. It's tiny stamp, and we're just gonna, you know, go back and forth a 1,000,000,000 times until we get a nice consistency that again makes you Braila sort of stick to the paper. And it makes very, very viscous, very gloopy sounds which actually quite satisfying. And you can see there that the ink has got like, a really nice sheen and it's got some texture because it's sort of viscous and sticking, if that makes sense. So now we're just gonna put it onto the fox. Remember, this time you don't have to push hard. The point is not that you push hard. The point is just that you apply an even layer off ink across the entire stamp, so that's what you really need to focus on, and you can see when you hold it to the light. If you've actually achieved that so Smith side down, put your hands over it for a bit, just to give it a chance to absorb into the paper. And then it's time for the trustee spoon. So this is my first print. So again, this is a test print we're going to be looking mainly for if the image comes out nicely. Andi, if there's any left over pieces that have that are supposed to be negative space that are not so in other words, any lines, any dots that we see where they shouldn't be those lines or dots. Now, again, you don't need to be to anal about this unless you want to be. It's up to you. It's your artwork, but I am going to take away the ones that are detracting from the image because for some reason, this little Fox now looks like it has, like, antenna or something. And there's also a strange piece by the I. So again, this is part of the process that's part of, you know, testing your parents, seeing what you like, what you don't like, what you need to change and just hiding it up. I get so for round two, we're gonna just cover it up again. Uh, just make sure that you think is not too dry. It has a generally good life span on on the paper. Doesn't dry instantly, so it should be OK, especially for doing tests. I would probably start new ink if I was gonna do my final piece. So another way that you can do this. And again, this is a test prints. So I'm not too worried about my technique, But you can also put the stamp or the liner face down on the paper. Um, so this is helpful because you can see where, exactly on your paper the stamp is going to be. It's not really the way that you would do it. I say in fine arts, but first stamp and for fun. It's good enough rights. You do whatever works for you. So there's still a lot of white areas, and that's just because I haven't I didn't take my spoon and I didn't, like, really take a lot of time and efforts to make sure that was a perfect samples, mainly just looking for any areas where there was a mistake. So I'm just gonna apply this to a an acrylic stamp block. Now, this isn't going to come out well, and I know it's not gonna come out well, because I know that the back is not perfectly flat, but I don't want to leave it on here. But I did want to show you what it would technically look up like, um, again, just normal ink. And he would make sure that you entire stamp it's covered. You'd put your stamp on the paper, leave it there long enough so that the ink could absorb into the paper. But I have attached this with some press stick or blue tack or whatever you wanna call it. And because of that, it's not even surface. If I was gonna apply this permanently, I think I would probably glue it to a wooden block instead. But I just wanted to show you the concept so you can also just use your hand like I did previously. And you can see it comes out really well. That's pretty much as good as you can hope for because it's, um, stamping, you know, it's not. It doesn't have that same viscous ability to go into the paper. And I think that if you look at the left versus the right, you can see the different looks that you can get. Uh, just with a single liner cut and using different inks. Next, we're gonna look at Whiting. 9. Conclusion: Yea, you've made it to the end of the class and as a special extra little bonus thing, I thought I'd show you what happens when you use Whiting. So this is a metallic white and you'll see that the consistency is very different, but the rules of the same you make sure that it makes the gloopy sound. You roll it on your, uh, stem. In this case, I'm going to use the fox stamp, and I'm gonna show you what happens when you put white ink on colored paper. So I hope that you enjoyed the class and I think that I wanted to end with something that was very practical seeing as inner uh, the fist of season is coming up, but it's applicable at all times of year. I think it's really nice to be able to use your handmade stamps on cards all on colored paper because if you use whites stamps on Kraft paper or black paper, you can actually make really, really nice gift wrap, which is very personalized, very sweet. And I mean, I would be really happy to receive a gift that was covered in my friends artwork riots. Andi, I think it's the same rules. You know, it's put this meets out of the paper down, spoon away and you know if they're a bit irregular, it doesn't really matter if you get a perfect prince every time because it's handmade and it's full of love. So for the class project, I'd really enjoy seeing you post your stamp or your liner cuts, and you can copy my designs if you like. I will put them in The resource is section, But you can also make your own because creativity is awesome. And I'd love to see what you guys create, be it the traditional black on wides or a list traditional whites on Kraft paper or whatever you make. I'm excited to see it, and I will see you in the next class Bye.