"Giraffe Closeup" Print

For my print, I chose to carve out a picture of a baby giraffe. I loved how the wrinkles looked all over his face, and when you looked at it all put together, you could see his happy expression. To start out, the class drew pictures of an animal and figured out we wanted it to look on our print; after we traced the sketch onto the linoleum, it was time to cut. We had to use speedball cutters to carve out the lines, which was a lot of fun, but it was tricky deciding which blade would do the best job. I was surprised at how well my project turned out overall, and I liked how the little details really enhanced it. The hardest part of the process, for me, was making sure I didn't add too many wrinkles to the sketch, so it would still look recognizable when I cut and printed; it took a lot of patience to make sure each step was done right. I have never cut linoleum so this was a new experience for me, but it was a lot of fun and I liked seeing the giraffe's face come to life.If I could I'd take him right out of the picture and keep him as a pet because he seems so adorable!