Linocutting - Attempt 1

For years I'm trying to find linoleum I can use to try out linocutting. Well...not every day ofc, and perhaps not every year even, but I've done several attempts to get into the craft, to get stonewalled by: 'what? Linoleum? To cut? No...sorry...'

Recently though, I spotted on some weblogs I read somebody who was doing some pretty amazing stuff with it, and I decided to get another attempt going. Perhaps here in Norway they would practice the noble art of cutting your fingers off...(who hasn't in elementary school?).

And voila...succes at last. In the most mainstream art supply store of town they are selling the stuff.

I bought one sheet to see how it would go and I can conclude the following:

1. Yes, you do need to cut away pretty much ALL the excess around your image. I thought I could be lazy and just cut about 0,5 cm away, thinking I would apply paint with a brush anyway. Didn't work. The paint still ended up everywhere. Including me, but that is hardly new.

2. Applying paint with a brush isn't working so well. It gets streaky. I guess I need a proper roller.

3. Acrylic paint is giving...interesting results. I might want to check into that.

4. I managed to survive my first attempt with all my digits still intact (barely though...).

5. Linocutting is hard work. Talk about a tired arm. I'm probably trying to cut too deep.

The image on it's own is nothing fancy. Just a quick basic cut, roughly A5 sized. (I drew that same cat yesterday for the birthday card of a friend,) I made some test prints, and washed off the paint again to have a nicer, clean result for the final attempt, but I'm afraid that will have to wait for tomorrow. 

I'm happy with the first attempts though, thinking about the possibilities. =)