Beginning Lino-cut: Simple art for RPGs
Lino-cut art is a relatively cheap, easy and effective way to produce art for a game or adventure module. This little guide shows you the steps I made in producing the back cover for FEUD with a suggestion of the times and costs. At the end I will include a simple list of tools and materials you might get to get started!
Step-by-Step
I am going to walk you through how I produced this image, used on the back cover of the FEUD zine:
Draw the design.
Time: Approximately 4 hours, mostly while watching TV
Cost: Practically nothing, some paper and a pencil
This is potentially one of the most time-consuming parts and some people go far further on this than I do. I tend to be relatively rough and then use the lino itself as a canvas that I draw directly on to.
Transfer the design
Time: 10 minutes
Cost: The lino
Some people do exact designs and then transfer them using tracing/carbon paper. I am finding I enjoy things most when I use the lino itself as a form of canvas. In this case, I very roughly drew my design, knowing full well I would need to figure stuff out as I carved.
You’ll see my lino is pink, this is because its been painted with an acrylic ink that makes carving a bit easier. I find this helps, but it isn’t necessary.
Carve
Time: 45 minutes Cost: The cutting tools
This is my favourite bit. There’s is something very fun about the immediate feedback of your use of the tools into the lino. I used two of the cutters here - a V mostly and then a U or curved one.
I start by cutting out the outline of the things I want to be white. I did this quite roughly with the V. The good thing about this tool is it isn’t designed for doing curves so when you try to do them them you get a very rough line, which is what I wanted here. The times here can really vary. This one took about 45 minutes, the longest I have spent is about 3 hours.
Then I cut away the majority with the round gouges, in some bits I do this quite shallow, so that ink will be more likely to accidentally touch and give some texture; and then deeper where I want that clear white.
For the teeth I went back to the V and just cut away from the base quite roughly so they keep some darkness while the tips are deep. The lettering was the hardest part but not due to the carving but because I didn’t layout the text properly and everything got a bit squished.
Print Prep/Test Print
Time: 30 minutes
Cost: The ink, paper and tools used to print.
Printing is the bit I find the most challenging and the kit is the most pricey. I have yet to learn enough to be able to mix inks or get consistent results. But this one is only black and white!
Here we start by setting out our kit and then inking up the roller - you put on a thinnish layer. When I started I didn’t do enough ink and so got bad results. I’m doing it slightly tacky and getting better results.
Then you can put them in a little frame called a registration board. Mine is cardboard held together with tape. This just helps to hold it in place when you’re printing and so you can line up your painting.
Put the paper on and then rub the back, here you can just see me using a spoon. It works great. Getting the knack of this stage is a bit tricky, and I have got to a point where I can get fairly consistent results. Probably got to a point where I was happy enough the second/third set of prints I did.
Peel it away - if you keep everything still you can peel, take a peek, and put it back if you want to re-print or even a sneaky extra bit of ink.
Then repeat and you’re done.
If you’re only looking to do this for art for your game you might repeat this till you get one key piece that you’re happy with.
Digitise
Time: 30+ minutes
Cost: your phone and editing software
This is the bit I need to work on next. Currently I take a photo on my phone and then edit it to reduce the saturation and then I delete the “white” in order to get an image just of the dark parts. I use Krita to do this but I need to either find a better way or buy a scanner. This works (and it is what I did for FEUD) but I felt it wasn’t consistent. I’ll take any advice that people have to offer.
Total
In total this print took around 5-6 hours, a lot of which was just coming up with the design hich i was doing while commuting, watchig TV, etc.
The cost additional to all the tools I already have is about £2.00 for the ink, paper and lino. I have spent about £50 on the tools i used for this. If you’re in the UK the site handprinted do a bundle for £44.00 that will get you printing straight away.
Tools and materials
Only a few tools materials are needed for lino-cut. In short we need the following two things: carving materials and printing materials.
Carving materials
Some knives: Here you can spend £4.00 or £125.00. The tools that the shop I am linking to here recommend are the £12.00 Japanese woodblock tools (which work on lino too). These have been fantastic for me - so much that you can get from these tools, and so much more. In particular there is one knife called a kiri dashi that I think is probably one of the most sophiticated tools if you spend the time to learn it. There are quite a few conflicting guides on how to use it but this manufacturer’s video shows it well.
Something to carve. At around £0.45 to £1.00 a sheet, lino is fairly cheap. I bought about 10 bigish pieces when I first started and that was enough to do all the art for FEUD.
I also bought a bottle of acrylic ink for about £3.50 in an art supply store. You can use a little to stain the lino and it makes cutting a lot easier. Regular cheap acrylic paint works for this too.
Something to lean on. I use a bit of an “anti-slip” mat for drawers (this kind of stuff) to rest on when I carve. You put a lot of pressure into the lino and you don’t want it to slip. Bench hooks exist if you have flat-edged tables (I don’t).
Light. Just bright light makes things easier, big windows, torch on your phone, a work lamp etc. I have a fantastic set-up of a phone tripod with this cheap light from a homeware store.
Printing Materials
Ink. I bought one £8.00 tube of burnt umber that I have barely made a dent on in producing around 80 prints. I have found this ink great so far and my next steps will be to experiment further with colours and more sophisticated, multi-layer prints.
Roller. The basic “blue” rollers are great at around £9.00. I ended up getting a fancier one which I love but I didn’t really need. Basically I wasn’t using enough ink but I thought it was the roller’s fault.
Paper. The paper! SO beautiful some of it. I bought this Hosho paper pad for £18.50 and I have some more straightforward paper for testing and when I want a more uniform result etc. The Hosho paper did all of my prints, I have loads left and creates this lovely textured effect in the print. There are all different types you can get, and experimenting to choose the right one is going to be a fun past time over the coming years.
“Press”. I use this simple barren for £3.95 and the back of a metal spoon. Really the spoon alone would do!
There we go! I highly recommend trying lino-cut if you want to produce art for your game and can’t afford to pay someone. It is fairly easy to learn, and though it does require some time, the results are great. Lino cuts automatically create this strong expressive style that can be great.
You can give me your thoughts, comments and follow what I’m doing on itch, twitter and tiktok!
If you’re on Discord I also mostly hang out on the FKR Collective and NSR Cauldron.