lino printing

I have been doing some lino printing - predictably of our cat Rupert. However, I'm not good with colours and this is a four-colour print. I was inspired initially by the Japanese-style of woodcut with flat colours and a sharp, dark outline.

Here are the stages in making the blocks, the first being the design drawn onto a piece of lino:

The next photo shows the first pull from the part-cut block

This is the fully-cut block and the black and white print from it:


These are the 4 separate blocks. The background ones are cut from plywood.

Finally, here are some of the 4 colour prints I have tried, starting with the first go in green and blue.



this last is a 'safe' colour version - a bit bland I think!

I would really appreciate any feedback and especially ideas about the colours.
If the truth be told I think I prefer the first draft from the partially-cut block (second from top), simply left in black and white...

about time for an update

It has been a manic winter, although the weather has not yet been very wintery. The grass has needed cutting fairly regularly since last autumn and we haave had no snow and little frost. We have got lots done - we topped the 10,000 books on line before christmas, and reaped the resulting rush of orders, which has been good. Book sales have quietened down now - I guess february is not the top shopping month. I have been spending time re-learning to use the most up-to-date version of Dreamweaver - eeek! Our business website desperately needs updating but its slow going.

We have been invited to a few traditional Breton/French singing sessions, having met someone at our dancing class who told us about the first one. Having sung at one we were invited to two more... The most fun so far has been a session up on the north coast, at Binic, of 'chants de marin' or sailors songs. We are going again on tuesday, having learned another couple of shanties/sea songs. We also went over to the UK to do some traditional song workshops with Greg's students at Esher College - that was a fun day, although I'm not sure what he students thought about it all. They seemed to be interested and were happy to join in. What we love about Brittany is that traditional songs and music are much more generally accepted and valued than they are in england, where they are seen as a bit of a joke. Pete & I will be singing in a concert of traditional song (breton/french/english) on 23rd June here in Kergrist Moelou.

Anyway, here are some photos of the first room to be completed upstairs in the bull barn. First one of the half-completed state:

These three are the finished room. We are going to use it as a bookstore for now, until we have completed the downstairs room (for which we need to remove the manger - built in with very hard concrete and reinforcing rods) Compare with photos from Aug 12th.