The Making of... Strength

This was one of my earliest jigsaw plates I made, this piece is an absolute favourite of mine and one that sold out so quickly! I had such a small edition because I really wasn't sure it would work and was looking at it as an experiment.

I worked onto easy carve lino, as its easier to cut into pieces, and I separate the plate into colours and added highlights before inking them up and rearranging them in the template and pulling the first later. this was really fiddly to do! I now do each colour individually rather than all at once.

This is the first colour layer, it looks quite abstract! you have to really trust the process at this stage. I printed another colour over the portrait, but unfortunately didn't photograph it! you will see later.

I started to draw out the areas I knew I wanted to keep so that I could carve away the rest of the plate.

I then inked up the portrait layer and printed it onto the colour background.

It was starting to come together, just the detail on the top to add.

I inked up a gradient for the top to add an extra bit of tone.

I then printed just the detail of the top last with the lovely pink gradient, I put extender in it, knowing that it would allow some of the yellow to show through and change colour. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get.

The pink layer turned a lovely orange, which brought out the cooler blue tones int the purples.

I love this piece!

They all sold out very quickly, but there are cards in the shop and lots more prints.