With relief printing like this one the first thing you have to decide is if you're going to do it positively or negatively. One way is where you have a solid shape with the drawing part cut as grooves in the material. Thats like this one which for the sake of argument we'll call negative. I think this way is easier.

The other way, which we'll call positive, is where you cut away everything except the drawing lines. So your block has lots of narrow ridges on it. I find this harder to do. I guess you could get round the problem by using white ink on black paper. The black lines on this little lino print are positive.

When I did this, I meant it to be purely abstract but later I realised that it looks like a 3 legged man with a long nose. Unless, of course, he's a very well endowed, 2 legged man with a long nose.

When you make a print the picture comes out in reverse. In other words left is right and right is left. This always takes me by surprise. I never get used to it.

Someone once asked me if left and right are changed, why doesn't top and bottom get swapped as well?. In order to answer this question you have to stand in front of a mirror and ask yourself why you don't appear to be standing on your head. And just a word of warning. If you think about this too long it'll drive you insane.

This is a self protrait by the way. Done at a time when I didn't have a beard. I like this linoprint but nobody else does.

It seems that the holy grail of printmaking is to make lots of identical prints but I'm less bothered with this than others. This is partly due to being a crap printer myself but also because I actually enjoy the little variations and errors that you get. After all, if you wanted a load of identical prints you might as well use a photocopier.