Feeding the swans

Here's a sneak peek at a print I've done for the first PrintPeople exchange... Can't wait to see what all the other (very talented) printmakers have done!

It's a reduction linocut, an edition of 18 on Japanese Simili paper, of which the first 12 are on their way to the US for the exchange.

My inspiration came from watching the swans in St Ives, Cambridgeshire - there are lots on the river in town, where they get regularly fed. I took a photo from the bridge, as the white swans on the dark water looked really striking... swan-shaped space...



I then sketched some of the swan shapes...

 And put them together into a pleasing (I hope!) arrangement...

 

This is what I traced down onto the lino, carving away the white areas first and printing the grey colour, then carving away everything else but the black.

This was enormous fun - I think I might do a few variations on this theme!