Following my high school years, I took a brief break from stippling to expand my creative horizons through a Certificate III in Visual Arts at TAFE. This course immersed me in entirely new mediums; from photography to charcoal including the intense, physical art of relief printing. This textured print was one of my very first experiments with lino carving

Transitioning from the absolute control of a fine-liner pen to the resistance of carving tools into a linoleum block was an eye-opening shift in perspective.

Hand-carved using traditional u-gouges and v-tools on a soft block, then rolled with dense black block-printing ink and hand-pressed onto paper. I chose to lean into a fluid, abstract line pattern to explore how the positive and negative space interacted. Linocut Relief Printing focusing on raw, graphic lines rather than the micro-details of my usual dot-work.

This piece marks a time of pure experimentation. Because carving tools make capturing ultra-fine details a real challenge compared to a pen, this exercise forced me to loosen up, think in bold blocks of solid contrast, and appreciate the beautiful, slightly imperfect grit of hand-pressed printmaking.