Reduction Linoprint - "Coal Not Dole"

Last Sunday I a whole day to make art - a rare luxury.   I'd was looking back through some old letters and postcards on Saturday night and spotted a Coal Not Dole sticker on an envelope sent by an old friend during the Miners Strike.  I decided to have another go at reduction linoprinting after attending a course at Westhope College last November - and this 3 colour reduction lino print is the result.   First thing on Sunday morning I Googled paintings of miners (standouts were the Pitmen Painters at Ashington and work by contemporary artist, Philip Toft) to get some ideas of what might work as a lino print.  The first layer - colour 1 + white - is the orangey red glow of the miner's skin in the lamplight underground and some white marks to define the lightest lights on his face and body plus the pit props in the background; the second layer is the yellow of his helmet and overalls; and after carving away again, the 3rd and final layer is black the background and areas of cast shadow on his face and body.   I had a fight with my new cheap printing press and spoiled my first two attempts at layer 1, so I went back to basics and used a plastic baren from an old Essdee printing kit to make the rest, ending up with 6 usable prints (2 that I'm happy with and 4 that will do).   At the end of the afternoon, turned those first two spoiled prints over and printed the final black layer on the back of the paper.  I intend to hand colour these with pastel pencils later this week and see how they turn out.   In the meantime, I'll post the best final print in the gallery.

Thanks Carol.  I've just put what I think are the 2 best prints up in the Gallery.  I like the palest one, although the blobby smudge of black ink on the right hand side is a blemish.  I need a bit of time to hand colour the two final layer "black only" prints, but at least it's a technique I'm comfortable with from hand colouring monoprints with pastel.