Linocut - Reynard

This new linocut shows a fox in his familiar role as the sly, bold trickster of folklore. It's about 10 x 12" and is black ink on paper.

Woodcut - Bear

This is my first attempt at a woodcut. It's quite small at 4 x 5" and the design is a simple sketch I did of a little brown bear, just to try out the technique. Cutting the wood was more tricky than I imagined; the plywood I used had a lengthways grain so whenever I wanted to cut against the grain it tried to splinter off, causing rough edges and even a lost foot that I had to glue back on! I'm not sure how smooth lines can be achieved with this sort of wood so maybe mdf is worth a try, but then I would lose the effect of the printed wood grain which I like. Maybe different tools?

I do quite like how it turned out though. I like the simplicity and folky quality of the bear with the woodgrain showing through.

Linocut - Lynx

This linocut is based on two Eurasian lynx I saw last year at Wildwood Trust in Kent. They were sisters who were playing and running after each other, stalking and pouncing and chasing. Although they're not very large animals (24" shoulder height) they look very strong and impressive with their bulky legs and big paws, and I've been meaning to make a piece about them ever since. It's amazing to think these animals lived in Britain up until medieval times.