Eileen Cooper RA

Starting with a hand-proofed lino image that Eileen had made at home, I suggested that I could create a lithographic version of the lino print by printing the separate blocks onto zinc plates in a greasy black ink which I would process and print in colours on my offset press.

Capturing the language and detail of the original linocut blocks was surprisingly easy and very accurate. Eileen’s original proof had a soft and ‘salty’ appearance, often frowned on and avoided by printers, but in this case, something we really liked because it really worked with the image and I tried to retain this quality on the plates and in the subsequent print edition.

Because we began this project during a lockdown period of the pandemic, We began the proofing process using a mixture of phone and video calling that we supplemented with frequent postal deliveries to exchange proofs and revisions. After a short but intense period of remote proofing, we homed in on a BAT print for me to match.

I loved how the original linocut language is maintained but the look and physicality of the lithographic ink films are quite different in feel to those of a relief print and I felt that this really added to the finished print which achieved a delicate silky quality typical of the medium.