An Essay on Inking Relief for Newer Print Artists

An Essay on Inking Relief for Newer Print Artists

This is my addition to an inking troubleshooting guide posted by u/Hellodeeries, who also happens to be a mod in the Printmaking subReddit. The Guide illustrates in great detail what inking errors look like. As you will see, the error is not always what you assume it is.

https://www.reddit.com/r/printmaking/comments/13d3hsz/ink_troubleshooting_guide_for_relief_printing/ 

This is my expansion into the details of inking. I had to learn proper inking when I began using ABS engraver’s plastic. It’s on 1/20” thin material, so it can’t be cut deeply and will readily get ink into the cut background. The following might not need to be so rigorous for all linocut, but because I began doing it this way to accommodate the critically thin ABS blocks, it will work for all relief blocks.

Number 1 – Use oil-based ink. You can’t follow this practice with water-based ink on blocks of any size; it will dry too quickly. Here, I presume you use oil-based. I use Calego Safe Wash. It has the properties of oil-based ink but cleans up with soap and water, often with just water. Charbonnel Water Washable Printing Inks have the same properties.

Whether you choose to use oil-based ink or water-based ink, use actual block printing ink. There are some printing inks that work for both intaglio and for block relief. But lithographic ink, for instance, will need modification to work. And it’s common for people new to this to try to use paint, acrylic or oils. Now, there are mediums to be added to acrylic paint for block printing and powders to thicken oil paint. They change the consistency and some add retarders to slow drying. But why invite difficulties. Maybe worth trying if you have a big supply of acrylic paint. But most of what we do is in black block printing ink, and that’s cheap enough. It goes a long way. If you want to print on fabric, use a fabric block printing ink. But that’s another topic.

Ink the slab, starting light, pulling down just enough for a good bed of ink. You can put a bunch of ink at the top of the slab and pull some down as needed. Or if you have a big slab, you can roll out a lot of ink without it becoming too thick. (I don’t, because my slab is the sides of cereal and cracker boxes so I can just throw them out when done inking.) I use a larger glass of plastic slab if I’m going to print a lot at one time.

Roll ink out to be a flat matte surface with the brayer hissing as it rolls. It will look about like the surface of a piece of mat board.  If the brayer squelches or you have a patterned ink surface that looks like a photo of the surface of the sun, there’s too much ink. Roll some off onto newsprint until it’s right. See the inking guide for photos of properly inked and over-inked plates. The Imgur version of the Guide has a good video of what the brayer should sound like and what the ink looks like on the slab and plate. Link is in the comments below the guide. Inspect the slab for stray bits of dried ink or stray lino bits. Remove with a blade and reink. Any bits that make it to the plate will cause the brayer to roll up and over, leaving a non-inked halo around the black dot center.

Have a plan for inking the plate. What parts might be troublesome? Note large cut areas you want to be white. Make sure that as the brayer is rolled, both ends are running on uncut lino. Lay a strip of lino alongside the plate if needed to support one end. If you don’t, the unsupported end is prone to drop into the background cut space. Or the end hanging off the plate makes the other end rise and not ink.

Use a light hand. You do not need much pressure to ink the plate. If it’s thin, you can roll it again.

In general, charge the brayer with ink and roll up from the bottom on one side. Remember that a 1.5” diameter roller can ink only 4.7 inches of roll-out. Even my 3-inch brayer can roll only less than 9.5 inches. After that, it has little useful ink left. Recharge it and repeat from the top. Move across the plate doing that. Then do it all again side to side. Then, I give it one more pass over all before printing in case I missed anything. Note that you are building up ink in layers, not trying to do it all in one pass.

You can develop your own inking technique, but I suggest you do it this way at first, as it is possible to be very controlled this way. With experience, you may be able to use short rolls in almost random ways around the block, but you should develop your own ways in a studied way. Have reasons for what you do.

Inspect the plate. If you see poorly inked areas, reink them. I keep ½” and 1” small brayers for touching up spots. Or just use the usual brayer. You are looking for the same kind of matte surface with no brayer marks or odd patterns. Pick out any stray bits and reink those spots. But you probably won’t have any if you didn’t leave any on the slab and you brushed out your lino after carving.

If you see that you have inadvertently inked a high spot in a cut area, cover it with a piece of artist’s tape so it doesn’t print.

When printing, keep a hand on the paper or keep the paper just under the press roller while you lift the end and check the inking. If you see a place not well printed, you can charge the brayer and carefully ink that area. Again, the small brayers are good for that, catching any small areas or spots. Doing that, you know you get a good print, because you already saw it was properly pressed. But if hand-printing, you must take plenty of time. Remember that a spoon, a common substitute for a baren, contacts the paper in only about a ½” square at best. It takes a LOT of passes to press every one of those 320 squares on an 8”x10” block.

Do your first proofs on cheap paper. You may find that a fresh block needs a couple of inking and pressing cycles to ink and print well consistently. Don’t move to good paper until you get a good proof. It’s not bad to keep some inexpensive printmaking paper as an intermediate between a cheap proof and an edition print. Papers like UCreate or Richesson just large enough for the block are good possibilities.

Avoid other papers, mixed media, watercolor, etc. They almost always have exterior sizing that tends to repel ink. Actual printmaking paper has little or no exterior sizing. For first proofs, cartridge paper, like laser printing and copying paper is also not typically sized externally, so it is okay in that regard for early proofs.

Some people worry about hard and soft brayers. Hard brayers have the advantage of being less prone to ink into cut areas. Soft brayers have an advantage of inking any uneven places. Both have uses, and most people will find uses for both.

I don’t clean the plate after printing, except to print it twice on newsprint without adding ink. It will still soil what it touched, but it will have a slight priming layer for the next inking. Keep it in a folder. And you may sometimes get some interesting ghost-like prints. But there’s no real reason you can't clean it off thoroughly if that makes things better for you. Just take care to keep water off the jute backing on traditional lino. It will shrink as it dries and curl the block. You can flatten it, but why have to if you can avoid it.

Same with the brayer. Roll it out on newsprint until it leaves almost no mark. It’s very efficient, because I have newsprint protecting the work surface anyway, and I can roll out on them. Use wipes to clean the ends of the roller so ink doesn’t dry there. Hang the brayer. Brayers should not be kept lying on the roller which can cause a flat spot to develop.

If you are puzzled by a brayer inking poorly in the center or the ends or having visible cracks, remember that rubber does age and shrink and crack over time. Neoprene rollers don’t, but they can be damaged by sunlight. Durathane is less prone to failure but can break down over time and is more expensive in a brayer.

I find that if I roll the ink off the brayer and newsprint it off the block and use the cereal box slab, I have no cleanup after printing, except to clean any ink off the press bed, the work surface and my hands. No trips to the sink. Of course, if you found that you need to edit the block, you need to clean the ink off.

If you make a deliberate effort to study inking, you will fine tune your own process, which may ultimately differ somewhat from what I do, saving paper, ink and time by making efficient and proper use of the ink.