Dave Lefner made his first linocut print in high school, using his own car to roll over the inked linoleum plate because all the presses at school were busy. Now he has his own press in a nice studio in L.A., the city which is the inspiration for much of his work. Lefner tries to preserve the urban landscape and is particularly interested in signs and lettering as a subject for his prints.
The technique he uses is called reduction linocut. Instead of printing just one color with it, the same plate is used over and over again, each time with more of the linoleum cut away, to create a multicolored image. It is very labor intensive and prone to accidents. The following video shows Lefner going at it. Nothing better than watching somebody making something, I think. Enjoy.
More on Dave Lefner: find an article on him in artworksmagazine and The Los Angeles Times, see more of his studio on Vintage Indie or learn a bit about the linocut process he uses at web.mac.com.
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