"The Leading Lights" - linocut

[@CoryPaints]

I'm blown away... The drama and tension. Fantastic.

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you. I'm glad that you enjoyed that.

[@btodoroff]

Beautiful and calming video production. Great sense of time

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you Brian

[@isabeedemski3635]

Great video. Poetry as voice of the print and process.

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you Isabee.

[@bryantvazquez18]

I’m only now starting to work with linocuts. My tools are far more basic and barebones. More along the lines of Kirchner and co. These prints are superb. Thank you for sharing.

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you for watching Bryant. ...and good luck with your linocuts.

[@ARTADDAWITHME]

U deserved lot's of views ❤

[@alloehwishaart8297]

wow amazing prints! cool video production as well!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you

[@that.tomboy]

As a fellow #printmaker, I'm impressed!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you. It's always nice to see recognition from another printmaker.

[@adamreamswood8564]

Incredible work and incredible video too man! 🤘🏻

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

@@adamreamswood8564 Thanks Adam 🤘

[@Colaris99]

Another level! Wow!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you

[@felixnewhouse2685]

Stunning work!!! Amazing

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you Felix.

[@merciless.v]

Wow, incredible work. Subbed btw.

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

@@merciless.v Thank you

[@Guylangloisartist]

Amazing

[@sergipulido]

What a hard job, congrats!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you

[@ARTADDAWITHME]

So satisfying wow❤

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you

[@Gluetubecraft]

Stunning ❤

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you

[@DirtyPlumbus]

Impressive. 👍

[@BeatrixBetwixt]

Wonderful work, so many details! This was a pleasure to watch & beautifully filmed as well. May I ask what size carving tool you did the fine detail with? I’m honing in on my tools so I would love any advice you’d like to share. I started purchasing Pfeils one at a time.♥️

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you for those nice words. I'm glad you like it. So... Yes, I'm using Pfeils and for fine lines I'm using micro U-shape 0,05 mm and V-shape 1 mm. Basicly you can achieve the same results using one of these two. I think the U-shape is a bit more easy to sharp / polish than the V. A few years ago at my beginings I had a little problems with V and I totally damaged two of them during sharpening. So if you can buy only one - I would suggest the "U 0,05".But if you can buy both... then you can test them both and pick your fav one. All the best and good luck with your prints. PS: don't use any stones for sharpening those micro tools. Use leather. It is better and more safe for the tool - but you need to use it a bit often during the day than if you would use the stone.

[@BeatrixBetwixt]

@@Thrashead-ns7iw thank you so much for your advice. I really appreciate it. I did buy the flexcut slip strop but have yet to open or use it. I’ll take your advice and stick to leather. I don’t mind using the leather more often if it will save my tools in the end. Thank you again♥️

[@ness8193]

Stunning work. So clean and crisp. What tools do you use? I'm looking to upgrade from the Speedball starter set.

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

@@ness8193 Thank you for kind words. I use Pfeil tools. Mostly "v-shape 0,1" or "u-shape 0,05".

[@ness8193]

@@Thrashead-ns7iw Thank you! I ordered the Pfeil V-shape 12,1 as my first grown-up tool a couple days ago. Relieved I made a good choice!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

@@ness8193 I hope you will be satisfied - these are pretty good tools. Good luck

[@craigduddles5650]

Your care and precision is tops. Superb work! I hope you are able to make lots of these videos. I'm hooked! Really like the meditative music as well. If I could ask one question, how to do transfer your art to the lino block? Looked like you were using a precision pen to draw on the lino but some kind of image was already present? Thanks!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you Craig. Exactly, as you noticed - before I started drawing with pens, the illustration had been transferred to linoleum. I used white spirit for this and the drawing itself was originally made on paper. Then I scanned it to my computer, enlarged it, printed it on four sheets of paper (standard office size), and then transferred it to linoleum using white spirit. Unfortunately, during the transfer it happens that I lose a lot of details, some lines get blurry... so I like to correct the whole thing before I start cutting it out. Of course, drawing on linoleum is, in a sense, duplicating my work - I do the same thing twice, but my linocut is strongly based on my drawing and I don't want to make any mistakes while carving. That's why I prefer to spend two extra days on correcting the whole thing - maybe I'll add some lines, maybe I'll change something slightly, but when I pick up the chisels, I want to be sure that all the lines are precisely marked and I won't make any mistakes. If the transfer you make is error-free, all lines will be fine - there will be no need to draw a second time.

[@craigduddles5650]

@@Thrashead-ns7iw Thanks for additional information! I'm hoping to a lot of block printing soon and am trying to learn as many processes as I can. I was an art major in the mid 80s and everything was manual then. However, I'm now quite habituated to computers and I could go full manual again but there's a part of me resisting. So I keep looking for a way. My drawings are on an iPad now. I've seen a few variations of the print out transfer and it seems to never work 100 percent plus limitation of paper sizes (tho can tile like you did on this one). So I've thought about video projection tho the resolution isn't great... perhaps 4k projection? I've wondered if there's a printer that could print directly on the lino. But at some point it could just be a digital print and one of the things I like about block printing is the physicality of it. I guess I'm tryin to mostly limit the manual processes to drawing (once), cutting and printing. Thanks again!

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

@@craigduddles5650 To be honest, I'm not against digital art in any form. Computer is a tool, exactly like pen or brush. Plus I've worked as a corporate graphic designer since 2007 and till this day I do some sketches / concepts digitally. I've decidad to start with lino because I am a big fan of old-school - a classic designs and techniques. It wouldn’t be a problem for me to scan my drawing, add a few textures - dirty paper, some misprinting effect, and the final effect would be very similar. But "very similar" doesn't mean "the same". I can appreciate all kind of digital art: 3D modeling, amazing digital paintings, vector art... but I believe that there is still a lot of room for old-school classic techniques. About transfering drawing to big scale lino... I am working with A2 and B2 formats, so they are more or less 4 x office format. If I would need to do a bigger scalle... hmmm... like you said, video projector may work, or maybe I would try to print the whole thing on office printer and then tape the whole thing together. Or skip the transfering and just start drawing dirrectly on the lino? But the last method is a bit sketchy because drawing need to be done in mirror reflection, so that may be an issue.

[@alskarmode]

Beautiful work! What press do you use?

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thank you. The press was custom made by Wojciech Zawadzki, who have his own workshop in Poland and he is supplying academies of arts and private printmakers across the whole Europe. He is really cool person. You can find him in Google - type in Polish or English: "Wojciech Zawadzki prasy graficzne" / "Wojciech Zawadzki printing press". On his website you will also find both: Polish and English language version. The rollers I use were also made by him.

[@albertomartinezalbors9079]

Great work, marvelous details. Best of luck

[@Thrashead-ns7iw]

Thanks Alberto