Levigator Press

On Monday night we got this student print finished with a whirlwind printing session of three colours, including carving the block in between. The student had careful plans drawn out in her sketchbook and a good sense of the colours she wanted to use, so she was able to work efficiently to get the last three colour reductions finished in just two and a half hours. Here’s the final six colour print:

And below is how we got there. At the beginning of the session the block was all carved and ready for colour #4, a 50-50 mix of process magenta and transparent base:

Then after some more carving, colour #5, a semi-opaque teal:

After this layer was printed was when I noticed that the baldric-type strap over Frida’s shoulder was green, white, red, like the Mexican flag. A fluke, as it turned out, but perfect.

Finally, all but the lines on the face were carved away, and what was left was printed in black. The student did some selective inking here in order to preserve the colourful wood chatter elsewhere in the print.

There was great consistency across the edition too. We’re so pleased with the final result!