“It’s like my own morse code, my own shorthand.”

In this relief printing process, an image is carved or etched into a sheet of linoleum. Ink is applied to the lino using a roller; the cut-away areas do not pick up ink. Paper is placed down onto the image and either printed on a press or printed by hand.

Etching was originally invented as a method for adding decoration to armour during the Middle Ages. Artists began to use metal plates for printing in the 15th century, when Albrecht Durer made work on iron plates. Later artists such as Andrea Mantegna in Italy and Rembrandt in Holland went on to make etchings on copper.

Soft ground was invented in the latter half of the eighteenth century as a means of reproducing the grainy qualities of chalk work. It was first used in England by Gainsborough and artists of the Norwich School.