For the last few months, I’ve continued my personal project on Instagram and worked on further cactus and succulent illustrations. I’ve varied several techniques, and used ink, colour pencils, and Japanese pens. The most recent experiment I did was linoleum prints.
Earlier this year, I did a class on print-making without using a printing press, and linoleum prints was one of the topics. I haven’t worked with it for a few months, so I decided to also do a few works based on earlier illustration from the 100 days of plants project.
I created a few cut-outs in linoleum plates based on my favourites:
I then experimented with different colours and papers. What I found is that the smoother the paper, the better printing works. On the left you see the same print on aquarell paper which surfaces is not as smooth as the sketchbook paper and the transparent paper in the picture on the right.
I also tried out effects of using black only, and then one colour, and multiple colours. To me the black versions and the ones using black and one colour are the best. I also tried out using multiple colours, e.g. yellow and green, but I don’t really like it because they colours are competing with each other to much. Combining one colour with black, as seen further below, makes it more interesting in my view.
Overall, I’m not too happy with the results. I imagined them to turn out better. I think I have to try out combining these prints with other materials, or using other papers as backgrounds, e.g. with some patterns or a different structure, or adding some additional touches with the PC. Further, I have to cut some more details into a few of the cacti to make the edges a bit smoother. So more work on these pieces until I’m happy.
Kat's Visual Arts 
3 thoughts on “Personal Projects: Urban Jungle, Pt. 2”