Pink Eraser Art Preclass

Welcome to class!

This one’s a little different than usual around here. Typically this site is heavy on video instruction, but I’ve not gone that way due to  1) the nature of the content in this course, 2) the inflation that’s taking a bite at summer’s end of 2025, and 3) student preferences. This way helps keep the cost down vs the price of some other 30 day courses!

This course has a number of videos in the first lesson, which demonstrate the basics needed for carving erasers.

The rest of the 29 lessons include sketches for each design – and 2 alternates – and step by step photos of the creation of the carving with notes about each step. You aren’t expected to carve all three – you can follow the main demo, or pick a different one….or adapt it to your own idea!

Before we start…a little housekeeping

I retain the copyright to the content you are learning in class. That means…

1. Do not sell or give away the concepts from my classes – you may not re-teach my instruction contained or created within these lessons.
2. Do not post a video tutorial or step by step photo tutorial of your own redraw of class content.
3. Do not repost any handouts you receive in class.

However…I love to see students making strides and taking this teaching and personalizing it with your own skills.

1. DO make your own designs and develop your own style! I love that!
2. DO gift your creations made with these techniques, of course!

At the bottom of each lesson you’ll see some ways to share your homework and ask questions, so that’ll be handy for you.

Video 1: Supplies 

Links are below the video….

Supply list

1. Linocut tool options (Speedball is most affordable)
   1. Speedball Linoleum Cutter, 5 blades
   2. Speedball Cutter, extra handles (yellow, blue, set of 12)
   3. Flexcut Linoleum Cutter, 4 blades
   4. Flexcut Linoleum Cutter, 11 blades
   5. Flexcut Extra handles (3)
2. Maintenance (recommended for any tool set)
   1. Flexcut Slipstrop
3. Erasers — these are 24 packs – and you’ll have some ruined ones, if you’re human, so get two packs of one or the other.
   1. Paper Mate Pink Pearl erasers 
   2. Amazon Pink erasers 
   3. Some of you may prefer to work with your favorite linoleum and cut it to size. Have at it! 🙂 
4. Inks – stamping inks will be great for this course! I’ll be stamping in black and pink. You know, branding the class with a simple colorway. But you’re most welcome to use ANY colors you have!
   1. Tsukineko Onyx Black AMZ   SSS
   2. Catherine Pooler Be Mine ink 
5. Paper – you can print on anything you’ve got; originally I’d planned on stickynotes, but the ink was blotchy so I switched to my favorite cardstock. But if you’ve got a favorite paper, use that! Also, have some scrap paper or stickynotes on hand to test out a print on as you work.
   1. Neenah Solar White 80lb ream AMZ
   2. Neenah Solar White 80lb 50 sheets AMZ
6. Other tools
   1. Scissors – I use EK detail scissors or Ranger (hmm are my red ones no longer available?), but any pair should easily cut through erasers.
   2. Pokey tool (ok it’s called a piercer!)- anything you can poke at little pieces of eraser that get stuck in a divot in the eraser.
   3. Tweezers – same purpose as above!
   4. Xacto knife – to help dislodge little bits or to edge an area.
   5. Pencil – a soft one like 4B, 5B, 6B, for transferring designs, and a hard one like 2H, 3H, 4H to add designs into the eraser
   6. Tracing paper for transferring designs (any of these pads will likely be great)
   7. Sharpies for sketching, marking on erasers
   8. Baby wipes – this isn’t a tidy project, so having baby wipes, paper towels, etc on hand will help you keep everything clean.

My DIY mini “bench hook” gizmo

For larger linoleum block prints, many artists will use a bench hook while carving. It keeps an artist from having to hold down the linoleum in ways that potentially could lead to pointing a blade at the hand holding down the material – which is dangerous! One slip and it could lead to much pain. 

In college we had a bunch of these (below) made of wood; it has a lip on the bottom to hang over the edge of a work table, and raised edges at the top and left to press against while carving a large linoleum block. 

But what to do with an eraser? I came up with this little gizmo (below) using an 89cent tile sample from the hardware store, a few scraps of heavy duty cardboard (from the back of a watercolor pad), and gorilla glue! I’m using both PaperMate and Amazon erasers, which are slightly different widths, but you can make one of these for yourself that fits the size of your own erasers.

A tile is a great base but if you have something else to glue guides to, go for it. Something heavy-ish like a tile can stay in place, so that the lip underneath wouldn’t be necessary. I’ll show it in use in lesson 1.

Video 2: A more stable, lasting carving platform

After a week of using the platform made with cardboard, I decided I wanted something I could dunk in a sink. I’ll show you how:

Video 3: Getting started with Block Printing

This overview of block printing on erasers is from my YouTube channel, and if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth a look!

Video 4: Sharpening tools

Many thanks to Professor Truszkowski at the University of Regina – this shows the polishing process as well as sharpening with a whetstone very well!