Linocut geeks – John Peel illustration

April 17, 2012

Here’s my illustration of John Peel – the latest portrait in my Geek Heroes series of linocuts. I’ve also done Jarvis Cocker and Benedict Cumberbatch. All three are available from my Etsy shop. Let me know if you have any good ideas who else I can do (preferably British!)

I used my lovely new ink roller for the first time for this. I bought it second hand but it’s from Intaglio Printmaker originally. It’s lovely and heavy compared to my Japanese rubber rollers and it has a wider diameter which makes it easier to ink the block in one go.

I had fun with the positive/negative areas of the football shirt and the headphones. Hopefully he’s instantly recognisable from these alone! I’m trying to avoid making these portraits too caricatured but John Peel (rest his soul) did have a rather large forehead. I hope he wouldn’t be offended.