Prints always begin with drawing on location.
Robin enjoys travelling to remote locations around the British Isles, searching for wild and dramatic places to inspire his wood engravings and linocuts.
Here he is drawing on the beach at Burrafirth on the Isle of Unst, Shetland.
He works in pencil and watercolour, working quickly to capture the ever changing weather.
Washes of watercolour move across the page as rain sweeps the cliffs and pencil marks delineate the crags and shadows of seabirds.
Back at the studio the location sketch is drawn on to a freshly sanded block of artist lino, using a mirror to reverse the design.
The drawing is outlined in pen, the block darkened and the cutting begins.
Ink is mixed and rolled out on a glass slab using a high density durathene roller. The ink must be just the right consistency. Thick enough to give even coverage to the lino block but thin enough to not fill in areas of fine detail.
Robin either uses paper from the English manufacturer G F Smith or the Japanese paper maker, Awagami.
The choice is determined by the size and complexity of the print. Some prints demand a softer treatment which would call for a lightweight japanese paper but more graphic images fare better on a heavier weight paper .
The Albion Press here was manufactured in 1854 by Hopkinson & Cope of Finsbury, London.
It is wonderful for printing wood engravings and linocuts, allowing for even pressure and exact registration. A very important aspect of the reduction printing process.
Here is a detail of the first layer, printed using a textured layer of pale grey. The reduction process involves cutting into the block in between each layer of printing and allows the print to be planned as it progresses.
Robin never knows exactly how a print will turn out and it is this process of experimenting and the unknown that makes the technique so exciting.
The final layer brings the print to its conclusion, strengthening foreground details and adding important depth and perspective to the scene.
“Dark Rain” Reduction Linocut 2023
