Artist Dan Howden is known for his highly detailed linocuts, having a layer-orientated approach to printmaking. With an MA in Visual Communication, he produces detailed prints, imagery, and sometimes even animation, using linocut–a printmaking technique in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface.
His traditional linocut tools include two glass chopping boards, some Speedball rollers, water-soluble inks, and some Amazon–found Linoleum. The process itself includes cutting the design into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal (mirror image) of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is then inked with the roller and impressed onto paper or fabric.
According to Howden, the high volume of registrations within his work gives it a painterly quality. “I doubled down on it at university and since then it’s snowballed into becoming my entire practice, which if I think about for too long, can be a little disconcerting,” he relayed in an interview with Lecture in Progress.
And when it comes to the themes he explores through his work, those seem to vary depending on his mood, with common features including scenery and humor. “I like including juxtaposition within my work – a series of Portacabins at the site of the Parthenon in Athens, a group of cynical mannequins in a toy town department store,” he says. “I enjoy taking nice, pleasant things and adding a little reality.”
