Design

• Avoid overly intricate images with very fine details, as they will be frustrating to carve. Simple designs such as silhouettes are very effective when printed. Draw your design onto tracing paper. Place the drawn tracing paper, side down, onto the linoleum. Use a pencil to shade or draw over the lines of your design. Remove the tracing paper to reveal your transferred design on the top of the linoleum. Use a pencil to place a small cross mark in the areas of the design that will be carved out. Remember that the areas that are carved out are the areas that will not print.
  
  

Layering

• Layering linoleum carved images is a way of introducing multiple colors into one image print. Decide how many colors you want to print your image in and which parts of that image will be printed in which color. For example, if you want to print in two colors, you will need to carve two separate linoleum blocks. Transfer your image into the two different blocks and carve out all the areas of each block that you do not want to print and the areas that will be printed in the other color. The two blocks will print all the different areas of the design in two colors when printed on top of each other.
  
  

Carving

• Carve out the areas of the linoleum block that you do not want to print. Hold the lino cutter so that the blade glides along the surface of the linoleum. Remove 1/8 inch of the depth of the linoleum in the areas that you do not want to print. Lino cutters come in different sizes. Use the smaller cutters for finer details of your design and larger cutters to remove big sections of linoleum. When carving, keep the blade in the same place and use your other hand to move the linoleum around the blade, as this will result in more fluid cutting lines.
  
  

Printing

• Select a printing ink that is appropriate to the surface you want to print on. For example, use fabric ink on fabric and a paper printing ink on paper. Squeeze a blob of ink onto the palette. Use the brayer to roll out the ink until it forms a thin, even layer with a rough looking texture on both the palette and the roller of the brayer. Roll the brayer over the carved linoleum. Cover all parts of the image that you want to print with a thin layer of ink. Place a piece of paper on top of the linoleum block. Use a clean brayer to roll over all the areas of the design. Pull the paper off the lino block to reveal the printed image.