Sometimes I cut up sections of old proofs that haven’t been successful and lay them on top of other failed proofs to see if different combinations might work better.
It certainly beats printing endless versions of the same print with only minor alterations, which then don’t work anyway…

Here are two proofs, one with a turquoise floor and one with a pale green one.
Of course, once I’d printed them, it was blindingly obvious that what was needed was a dark floor instead.

So then out came the repair kit (stanley knive, super glue, wood filler and sandpaper, in case you were wondering…)
I had to splice in a whole new floor section – from the left is the front view, then the back view and finally, the goth boots drawn back and ready to cut again. A piece of cake, really (joke).

I had a problem (sadly, not the only one on this particular print) with the colours for the upholstery on the tube train seats. It’s so difficult to predict what will work best with the surrounding areas and once the blocks are cut, it’s very hard to rectify.
In the end, I printed up little sections with various combinations of the four colours I was using and laid them down over one of the earlier completed proofs.
Here are three examples:

Once I’d decided on the colour combination to use, I had to take the one block that already had the diamond shapes cut into it and offset it on to the other three blocks.
Here’s a very quick explanation of offsetting:
Ink up a block very thickly and print it on paper.
Place an uncut block on the press, lay down the printed paper on top in exactly the same place and run it through the press again.
You then have a perfect impression of the cutting from the original block transferred to the next one. (Apologies if I’m preaching to the converted…)
Below are three random photos of the offsetting as I was going along – the white powder on the first one is talcum powder, which dries the offset ink quickly so you can cut into the block without waiting for the ink to dry.

Above is a picture of the third block in the process of being cut and below are two examples of the many proofs I took at this stage.

In this very early proof, I’ve decided to use a pale cool grey, and have left the floor unprintes up until now, so that the grey prints onto the white paper. I’ve also left the seats in turquoise with the crimson creating the diamond pattern.

On this later proof, I’ve decided to change the pale grey on the third block to a pale cream – olive green mixed with white and a lot of reducing medium.
This thins the ink, allowing the previous colours to show through, especially effective over the dark purple, where the two colours produce a warm but neutral grey.
Some of the upholstery pattern on the seats has been cut away on blocks one and two, leaving areas of the pale cream able to be printed onto the white paper. The floor is still pure turquoise.

This is the second lino block, inked up and ready to go on the press – at this stage I had still had a cut away floor area…..

Here I am, pulling the second proof – this is where it can all start to go wrong…….

The crimson printed over the turquoise results in a good strong purple – not too bad…..

Here is the first proof of the first block, printed in turquoise and ready to overprint with the second block (in crimson).
I always make a lot of changes to the first block – for example, I couldn’t choose between whether the floor should be light or dark and in the end, decided on light, to echo the ceiling areas, and so cut the lino away on blocks one and two.
Then I had a change of heart and painted the floor in thinned turquoise ink (you can see this above) as I wanted to check whether a darker floor would create a better balance.

Kings Cross train station is Grade One listed, although you wouldn’t know it – the building has had a lot of really rubbishy work done to it over the years.
Although it is going to be refurbished soon, it still has a certain grim charm and I wanted to record it before it got tarted up.
St. Pancras station, which is right next door, has had the full heritage treatment- cleaned, buffed and polished to within an inch of it’s life. The result is undoubtedly very beautiful but I think I prefer the rather down-at-heel Kings Cross….