The above was taken this morning after seeking/receiving advice from Jim Westergard about speckled and patchy prints. This time I placed blotting paper between the felt blanket I was using to cushion the paper between the plate and the first wooden slab on my jack press. So, there was the plate placed face up on the platten. The Printmaking paper on top of that, then several pieces of blotting paper and then the blanket followed by the wooden slab and pressure supplied in the form of a car jack.
I feel there is slight improvement. There is a more consistent spread of the ink. However, I think I could make a better print if I were to gently sand the surface of the lino. I vaguely remember being advised this before, however a simultaneous email sent to the Printmaker and Illustrator Paul Catherall brought this back to mind.
In an ideal world I would have taken this crucial step prior to cutting my design, but lessons learned the hard way are more easily recalled I find. I shall need to take care to remove dust and debris from the cuts and the plate surface before attempting another proof. Also, the ink is very cold and I neglected to warm it through before taking this morning’s proof. I am attending to this now, and shall edit this post accordingly once this and further steps have been taken.
I shall likely test out the late light sanding step on an old attempt at lino cutting I carried out before starting the course.
This produced the following proof following the same procedure with the blotting paper padding as before.
Maureen Walker's Introduction to Printmaking Blog 