Do It Yourself Linocut Stamp

Hi there! It's Monday!

For a while I've been thinking about getting myself a rubber stamp with my logo on it so I could put the "owl seal of approval" on envelopes, letters. packages, and other merchandise that I may gift or sell to someone. Not being sure if I want to commit to ordering a custom made stamp with uncertain quality results, I decided to try and make my own stamp using the linocut method. So, I got myself a small piece of medium-hardness (charcoal grey coloured) linoleum from the art store and got to work.

I converted my brand logo to black and white and printed it out on a piece of paper. I printed the logo at 2 x 2 inches. It seemed like a good size for a stamp, though it might not be so easy to cut out the details of the owl.

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I then transferred the image from my paper on to my linoleum piece and cut out my image with my Speedball Lino Cutter Assortment (#1). The set looks like this:

But you may be thinking - how did I transfer the image from the paper to the linocut piece?
To answer that I actually just tried searching online for a video or photo tutorial using my method and nothing came up. So, I'm off to do a quick photo demo and I'll post a tutorial TOMORROW. =) It's such a quick and easy method. You'll love it, just you wait. In the meantime...

Since I wanted the logo to transfer without a background I had to cut away a whole bunch of stuff. For the most part I used the thinnest number 1 and 2 blades, because my logo was detailed. Even so, I quickly realized that I didn't have time to fuss around the owls' feathers and nostrils so I decided to emit those for the sake of my sanity. (That day anyway) I even got somewhat impatient and with an x-cto knife cut away part of the face...which I realized was not a swell idea. It would have been smarter to leave it and after finishing cutting to attach a handle on the back so I could easily use the stamp on an ink pad. Just one of those less clever days I guess.

Bottom to top - my printed image, the linoleum stamp(ish) thing, and the 1st test print.

Quick test run of the stamp. The really "hand made" look is achieved.

So here we have a couple of test runs of my do-it-myself linoleum stamp. I just brushed some acrylic paint on it with a brush, so the colour is uneven. The proper way would have been to use a little roller to put on the paint, but that was too much of a fuss at the time. I'll try it that way soon.

I have some linoleum left, so I'm going to do a larger version of the logo, or go for an reversed colour look inside a circle, which may also look nice. There's a lot of things I want to fiddle with and there are only so many hours in a day...so we'll see.
But one thing's for sure - the super quick and super simple image transfer on to a linoleum block tutorial is coming tomorrow. 

All images in this post (especially the owl logo) are ©Mariya Olshevska.

Stamps for a Cause

Hello!

It's illustration time! Here is a my first project of the spring semester. For this assignment we were to illustrate a stamp (or a series of stamps) and a stamp sheet for a charity/cause/organization we feel passionate about. (If they were to hire us) I love wild animals and think they shouldn't be endangered so I chose the Canadian Wildlife Federation as my organization inspiration.
And since I'm particularly fond of predators I decided to paint a trio of stamps of vanishing canids - foxes and wolves.

Here they are:

And the stamp sheet:

After class critiques I'm making some improvements as we speak =)

And here's how it all came together:

Composition sketches. I was still deciding between CWF and WWF

Penciling. Originally I wanted a soft, blue wave type of sky background, but I afterward I thought it would be too distracting

Initial linework

Painting part I -- no background yet

Close up of my favourite portrait with background

 And again - the finished triptych =)

Save the wolves and foxes people!

And here's a different version of the triptych I just whipped up. I digitally removed the next animals' overlaps.

Info:
Each animal portrait is 3.75 x 4.25" (cute and little !)
Completed on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper
Painted with watercolors + waterproof coloured inks + 0.05 micron pen

Art prints will be available by the end of the day =)

Happy Friday!