The Kate Leney Gallery

Relief printing is when you carve or cut away areas leaving a relief surface which is ready to be inked up with a roller to leave a thin layer of ink. Paper is placed on top of the ink and rubbed on the back or put through a press to take a print of the relief surface.

Lino or wood are the most commonly used materials although you can use any surface you can cut or carve into.
Special tools are used to cut into the surface and a thick ink is used so you can roll it thinly on the surface. There are printmaking papers designed for printing with the press or if you are printing by hand you can use beautiful handmade or thin Japanese or Chinese papers. Printing by hand also allows you to control the tone of the image instead of getting a blanket colour through the press.

Colour prints can be made with a different block for each colour and carefully registered to print on top of each other or by the reduction method.
The reduction method begins by generally printing the lightest colour first. You decide at this stage how many prints are in your edition. The area you wish to leave that colour is cut away and the next colour is carefully registered and printed on top from the same block reducing the block until the final and darkest colour is printed.