The deadline for the Speedball New Impressions Printmaking Competition is only a few days away. I finally finished gathering all of my materials today.

The competition asks for the prints to be made on Arnhem 1618 paper. I had to order it online and while I waited for it to come in I wondered, what makes this paper so special?

When the paper arrived I inspected it carefully and found that although it might look just like any other piece of paper there are some unique qualities to it as well. The paper I ordered arrived in a pad. You can tear of single sheets at a time. This is a nice element to have especially if you’re like me and have all kinds of paper laying everywhere. The paper itself is thick like cardstock. The surface is smooth and textured at the same time.

I finally invested in a brayer in order to evenly spread the ink on the linoleum. I also purchased some transfer paper. I’m not the best at drawing and if I can get away with only drawing something once, then that’s what I’ll try to do!

Next week I will show you what I submitted to the competition!