Reduction Linocut Printmaking (4-week) | Wildcraft Studio Portland

Reduction linocut is one of printmaking's most gratifying — and unforgiving — processes. In this traditional relief technique, a single block is progressively carved and printed, color by color, until the image is complete and the block is gone. The result is a print that builds by subtraction, creating an edition that can never be re-printed.

Over four, 3-hr sessions, students will learn to think in layers: gaining an understanding of how colors build on one another, how registration holds an image together, and how the logic of subtraction becomes a design language of its own.

To learn the process, printmaker Rhiannon Alpers will lead the group through how to design and cut stencils for a multi-color image, demonstrating how to reduce the paper matrix layer by layer in the same way a printing block is reduced. This approach allows participants to fully understand registration, color sequencing, and the logic of reduction using paper and ink before moving into the more labor-intensive carving process.

By the end of the 4-week course, students will leave with a small edition of multi-color reduction prints (approx. 6 x 8") and a working understanding of relief carving, color layering, and the particular satisfaction of a process that demands commitment!

All materials & tools provided by the instructor. No prior printmaking experience required.