Moon Gazing Hare – The story behind the print

It was my auntie's 70th birthday in February. She loves hares, so my mum had asked if I'd create a linocut print for her. I created the print before Christmas so I could take it home with me but have needed to keep it secret until now.

Here's my initial design for the print transferred onto the lino.

Carving the hare design into the first block. I usev-cutt and u cut tools to create different textures.

This is my first plate fully carved. Now to make the second plate for the moon.

Here I'm testing printing the first plate and transferring the design onto the second plate for carving.

Here I'm carving plate 2. I'll be cutting out the silhouette of the hare.

Now I've carved both plates and I'm ready to start mixing inks.

Playing with colour. I wanted to mix a denim blue. I have 3 different blues that I can start with as a base and then add tiny amounts of black and yellow to get the right tone. To mix the paler blue I've added loads of transparent ink.

Here I'm inking the plate I'll print first. This is always the one with the paler colours. I've rolled the pale blue on first and then mid denim blue to create the ground. Everyone will be slightly different as I'm using the line of the roller to apply the ink.