Relief printing involves printing from the raised areas of a carved block, usually wood or linoleum. Linoleum became popular in the 1920s thanks to artists like Picasso and Matisse. A linoleum print is made by cutting designs into a linoleum surface. Artists use tools like gouges to carve away non-image areas and stop cuts to end gouge lines precisely. Relief prints can be made from a single carved plate or two plates to create more tonal range and emphasize certain areas. Two plates give artists more options for values, colors, textures and directional lines in their prints.

1. Creating values with carved lines
RELIEF PRINTING
WITH TWO LINOLEUM PLATES

2. Relief Printing -
 Technique in which the image is printed form
the raised areas of the printmaking block.
 These are usually created by cutting away
areas of the block.
 Wood, Linoleum, and Collagraph are all
considered relief prints

3. Relief Printing began with
Woodcut Prints – earliest form Linoleum – became popular in
of plate printmaking the 1920s and 1930s thanks to
Picasso and Matisse

4. A LINOLEUM Print is made by
cutting into linoleum.
Ben Smith. Linoleum is floor covering
originally invented in England
in the 1850s, but it not become
widely used until the 1920s.
Battleship Gray Linoleum was
used by the Navy and later
became an art medium.

5. Cutting Process
Stop cut – made with an exacto
Gouges – a broad tool used for or a blade. It goes against a line
clearing away non-image areas and helps to end a gouge
from the wood or linoleum block. before it cuts away the line.

6. Proof Print – a trial print
pulled to test technical
aspects of an image.

7. Single Plate LINOLEUM

8. Two Plate LINOLEUM

9. Creating Value Textures and
Directional Lines

13. Two Plates give an artist
more choices in value and
color. Allowing for
Emphasized areas.

18. Student Works