Linocuts. Linocats

This is our tabby cat, Clyde. We adopted him two years ago as his previous owners couldn't take him abroad with them when they had to move from England back to the United States. He used to be a house cat. Now we've given him his shots and he has learnt to love the outdoors.

Sleepy Clyde.

He has gorgeous markings. I've wanted to do a lino cut of him for a long time. Lots of printers have been inspired by their pet cats in the past.

Edward Bawden's linocut of a tabby cat with a ball of wool

Richard Bawden's kit

Eileen Mayo's woodcut cats are too adorable!

Ok, so the first thing I did was take some snaps of Clyde. This one looked okay as a starting point. Animals can be a proper pain to photograph. They never stay still.

Hey boy!

Then I decided to add a load of contrast to the image in Photoshop using the 'threshold' tool. This was to help me see the image clearly in monochrome. I want to do a lino cut in one colour only.

I've doodled some plants around him too.

If I was lazy I could have just printed this image and traced it onto my piece of lino to cut, but I consider myself an illustrator and I wanted to capture his personality and add my own drawing style to the print too. So I used this digital image as a reference to do a new sketch.

My sketched lino cut design of Clyde

Clyde has a huge nose and muzzle for a kitty and he has these markings above his eyes that look like eyebrows, so I emphasised these. Next I traced it onto my lino and started to cut out the design.

Awww. I love his cheeky face.

   Almost there...

It's so messy. There are lino shards everywhere.

And then I made some prints

They take a few days to dry in my living room. 

Here is the finished print. I used a Japanese Sumi-e paper because it's acid-free, environmentally friendly and it's really thin. The ink soaks into the paper really quickly and it has a nice texture.

Clyde

Linocutes: The Girl Band

Annie's Accordion

Betty On Banjo

Bessie Plays Bass

The Musician set

Here is some of my work framed and ready for a show called 'Stages' that will be opening at the end of June at the new Quarry Theatre in Bedford. They are hand printed limited edition lino cuts.

Mill Race Folk

I have just finished this poster for a new night that is happening over at Bromham Mill Cafe. It's an acoustic, unplugged evening of folk music with the fabulous Stick In the Wheel headlining. They have been nominated for two BBC Radio 2 folk awards and the ceremony is tomorrow! Fingers and toes are crossed. I hope they win something.

Doodle Press

I've been a full time greeting cards illustrator for a while now, working in-house for various studios over the years. I've been at Doodle Press since the studio opened and I've loved every minute of it. It's a brilliant company to illustrate for as I get to work in an eclectic range of styles such as cute characters, florals and watercolors. Here are some samples of my designs taken from our new website. The full website shows off all the great work that myself and my talented colleagues do: www.doodle-press.com

 

Latest Lino Cut Experiments

Here are a couple of lino cuts I have been working on at home. A female bassist and a red squirrel. I have plans to cut 2 other female musicians to go with the bassist and sketches in place for multi coloured bird lino prints.

Seventeenth Night

The poster I have illustrated for Seventeenth Night

My friends Jack Sharp from the band Wolf People and singer songwriter, Davy Willis have got me involved with a night of acoustic music. We will be singing some covers and performing our own songs.