Iron Maiden

Once again, I spent a long time trying to get this cut right. All in all I spent a good 8 / 9 hours getting it done. I had a similar problem to the others, and I started the cut 3 times over as I wasn't happy with the quality of the first 2 attempts.

This process is making me realise how difficult and challenging linocut can be. The medium is unforgiving and the marks made are permanent. Once I go wrong, depending on the extent of the mistake, it's hard / sometimes impossible to rectify the problem. So starting over is sometimes the only option.

It's making me consider the importance of really taking my time with cuts to ensure that everything goes right. I can rush a sketch, and I can rush a digital piece of work, but I can't rush a linocut. Also the actual printing process takes a long time and impacts on my organisation and planning. The facilities here at college are brilliant for printing, but they're limited to some extent because of the fact that lots of people are sharing, and sometimes there are things timetabled in that can't be moved.

The iron maiden was a challenge but I'm happy with the outcome. I feel like I made the right decision in scrapping the first two attempts as they weren't heading in the right direction.