This is part three of my journey to linocut printing. My gel matte acrylic medium arrived on Friday and I put it to use quickly. I made a print of two characters I will be carving from rubber block. I cut the characters out for the project. One is 4x6 and the other is 5x7 after I cut them out of the printer paper.

I took one of my paint brushes and spread the acrylic medium on each rubber block, making sure it was a nice even coating for both blocks. I then took the print and laid it face down, on top of the acrylic medium and smoothed out any bubbles or wrinkles that formed.

I set both blocks aside and let them dry overnight. Now that the first linocut block was ready, I placed it in the sink and dampened a wash cloth. I used the wash cloth to moisten the printer paper and slowly worked from top to bottom. Using my finger, and I gently rubbed the paper until it started to ball up.

As you can see in the left image, as I removed the printer paper it left the ink on top of the linocut. This was a success compared to the acetone method I tried to use. This took a bit longer to get to this point compared to the acetone attempt, but I think it was worth it to go this route.

Thank you for reading!