Reductive Soft-Cut Printing

Reductive Soft-Cut Printing 5-color reduction

Select Original Photo & Photoshop Manipulation

6 layers of the original image separated out in Photoshop using the Filter<Cutout (with 6 levels of value to separate out the tones and determine what to cut in order)

Tools, Set-up, and Transferring Image

5 carving blades and tool, Transferring image by using a #6B pencil to cover the back of image #1, Soft-cut material with transfer, image carved away, set-up (brayer, plexiglass, soft-cut, ink, palette knife, and paper)

rolling out ink using brayer

Roll ink evenly onto plexiglass and then apply to soft-cut block in an even and consistent layer (ink should lay smooth and thin on soft-cut, to avoid bleeding into carved areas). You should hear an audible "click" sound when the brayer has the correct amount of ink

Barren to print the image

Center and lay paper on top of inked soft-cut. Apply even and circular pressure to the barren, paying special attention to the corners and edges of plate.

First run of print using silver ink on black and white paper

2nd Carving and Printing

Line up inked plate with edge of 1st run image. Leave a 1/4" gap between plate and bottom of image to account for width of plate when it is laid down on top of print. Flip paper over and complete using a barren.

Finished second run of print using gold paint over silver

3rd carving

3rd print (brown ink), 4th print (dark grey ink)

5th carve, using the original image to make some decisions on how much to carve away and how much to leave (only black areas remain), using black ink to print final 5th color

final images, 5 colors

final image, black paper, 5 colors

Final image, white paper, 5 colors

Appreciate