Planning a reduction

A reduction print uses one block for every colour, cutting a little more away between each pass. Once you print a stage and cut into the block again, that stage is gone; there's no way back to an earlier state of the block. Planning matters here in a way it doesn't for a multi-block print, where each colour keeps its own piece of lino.

Light to dark

Most printmakers cut and print a reduction light to dark: the palest colour goes down first, over the whole sheet, and each later pass removes more of the block and adds a darker layer on top of what's already printed. Working this way means a mistake in a later, darker pass can often be absorbed or covered, where a mistake in an early light pass is stuck under everything that follows. Some printmakers work the other way for particular effects, but light to dark is the sensible default if you haven't got a reason to do otherwise.

Count your passes before you start

Decide the number of colours, and roughly what each one covers, before the first cut. A reduction with three stages asks less of registration and patience than one with seven, and it's much easier to plan four colours against the finished image than to discover halfway through that you need a fifth. Sketch or paint a rough colour study first if the piece is at all ambitious; it's cheap to change on paper and expensive to change on a block you've already cut into.

Proofs and the ghost

Pull a proof at every stage before you move on: it tells you the colour and coverage are right, and it's your last chance to check registration while the block still matches what you printed. Many printmakers also pull a ghost print immediately after, a second impression taken without re-inking. A ghost is fainter, since the block gives up less ink the second time, but it's useful two ways: it's a spare copy of that exact stage to test the next colour against before committing a "real" sheet, and it can be a working record of what the block looked like before you cut further.

Keep a stage record

Because the block can't be un-cut, a photograph of the block and a proof at each stage is the only record you'll have of what it looked like before the next set of cuts. Note what ink and how many passes went into each stage while it's fresh; reduction prints are hard enough to reconstruct from memory a week later, let alone a year on when someone asks how you got a particular colour. If you print on the iPad app, the Separate module keeps this for you automatically: a block-state view of what remains at each stage, and a print simulator you can step through. See Separate.