WOODCUT — LINOCUT — PROTEST POSTER PRINT

VISUAL STYLE: Woodcut and linocut printmaking — the most direct of the print traditions. A knife cuts away everything that should be white. What remains takes the ink. The image is defined by what has been removed.

COLOUR PALETTE: The two or three colour palette of relief printing. Black (#000000) as the primary print colour — the ink pressed into paper. White (#FFFFFF) of the paper showing through the cut areas. One or two flat over-printed colours:vivid red (#CC0000) for political urgency and protest, or warm ochre (#CC7722) for warmth and community, or deep blue (#003380) for solidarity.

CUTTING MARKS: Visible throughout — the grain of the wood affects the character of the line. Gouging marks in the large black areas. The slightly rough edge of a cut line. These marks are not errors — they are the record of making.

FIGURE DESIGN: Bold and simplified. Detail that survives reduction to two values. Features rendered in minimum marks — strong eyebrows, defined jaw, the silhouette that reads at a distance.

TYPOGRAPHY: Hand-cut letterforms with the same visual weight as the image. Letters that are part of the composition, not placed on top of it. The serif or sans-serif of someone who cut their own type.

ATMOSPHERE: The urgency of something made quickly by someone with something to say. The warmth of something made by hand. The roughness that is also honesty.

No photographs. No clean digital lines. No soft edges. Only the cut mark, the ink, the paper, and the conviction that made someone pick up a knife in the first place.