Awesome. So now that you've decided on your design size, it's time to start designing. And this is a really fun part of the process because there's no commitment yet, you can just play and have fun with different drawings. I really love to create at least three different drawing designs before I start carving so that I have options and I can play with an idea over and over again before I commit to putting it onto my linoleum block and that's what we're going to do right now. So to begin this process, take your block and trace its exterior onto a blank sheet of paper with your sharp pencil. This can just be printer paper.

This is your frame. This is your frame and the size of the stamp that you will be carving and working with. I like to trace the block a few times. To my papers so that I have many different iterations to work with. Your initial drawing is like your roadmap. It's going to give you all the information you need as we progress in this process.

And you really want to be clear about what you're including, when you're making your initial design sketches. There are a few things to keep in mind. First, relief, printmaking lends itself really well to high contrast. So think about light and dark ink spaces and no income spaces, different textures, you can really play up the sense of contrast with large geometric shapes, different textures filling each section of your design. Another thing to note is that if you're a beginner, keep it simple. Don't get so overly lost in my new detail that you lose the bigger picture if you're being inspired by really detailed plant or flower.

For example, think about what details you can leave out and how you can simplify that design. Because once those teensy tiny lines are transferred onto your blog to be carved, some of the detail might be lost as a beginner just because the lines are so small and you're learning new tools. And sometimes with this type of really smooth, soft block, the ink can actually push down into tiny, tiny crevices and muddy the lines. So just think about how you can add some interest of detail without overwhelming your design with it, at least at first. If you want to get deeper into detail and how to make that work with your prints. Join me for future classes here on Skillshare for more advanced printmaking.

Another thing to think about with your design is texture. You can really add an impact by creating a sense of contrast with different textures across your design. So you can imagine using different shapes, different carving blades, which we'll get to when we go over how to carve and use of line in many different ways and areas of your drawing. So for example, you can see in this drawing how each section has a different play with different design and texture. So imagine that as you work with your own design. Another thing to take note of is that some of you who have heard of printmaking, but maybe haven't tried your hand at it, have heard that everything and printmaking is backwards, and it definitely is an exercise for the brain.

But as you draw your design, don't worry about anything reversing, just draw as you normally would, because I have a trick that I'll show you later on. That doesn't end up with anything being backwards in your print. And last but most certainly not least, when you begin to carve your stamp, everything that you carve away will reveal the surface that you are printing on. So for example, if you're printing on white paper, everything you carved away from your block will be white on the final stamped image. If you are printing on a light blue dish towel, everything you carved away from your block will be light blue. The only part of the stamp that will catch your ink is that top surface that remains.

So just keep this in mind as you design. And then as you carve later on your initial drawing is like your roadmap, it's going to give you all the information you need as we progress in this process. And you really want to be clear about what you're including. And here's a pro tip in your sketch, because your sketch is your roadmap, fill in the spaces, you want to be inked with your pencil. So really fill them in thinking about that those are the areas that are going to be inked, and leave the areas that you want to be carved away, empty, and even go as far as to write a C in the spaces that you want to carve away. In other words, the areas that you don't want to receive Inc.

This is really helpful once this drawing is transferred to your block because it provides information for where you're going to carve and what you're going to leave present to be inked. I've had plenty of instances where I've done a drawing and haven't given myself that information thinking that it would be fine once I started carving. And then as soon as I was in that process, I would forget which parts I wanted to leave out which parts I wanted to include. And my head would get all confused and I would miss having that roadmap. So really give yourself that information with that initial drawing so that you can know once you're in the carving process. Another tip is to be really confident in your drawing confident in your pencil lines.

If you make them too light, or kind of that sketchy feel they won't translate as well to your block once we move on to that step. So even if you start with some light pencil lines, make sure you go back over them and really have confidence in what you're creating. Because if you put that pressure onto the pencil, that graphite will transfer to the block better later on when we get to that step. Once you have about three designs, snap a photo of the one that you're going to move forward with in this printing process and upload it to the project section on this class so that other classmates can give feedback so that I can give feedback and really cheer you on