Colours May Vary - Print Design

For the exhibition at Colours May Vary, my design needs to fit into a square format frame. Unfortunately, the prints I have produced in response to the process and production module are ovals so its not really an option for me to just crop them down to size. Instead, I am going to have to alter a design to make it a circle. 

To get this started, I shortened the height of each of my prints to see what they looked like. Some of them clearly look out of proportion like the knights for example,  but others don't actually look so bad. I have decided to go with the bishop print which is representative of secrecy, I think this is one of the prints that gets across theme the easiest and it will also take less editing. Colour also played a part in my choice because this pale green/blue colour is really popular at the moment and if I am selling prints that people might potentially want to hang on a wall in their home, this seems like a good option. 

I have decided to cut a new lino because I am not happy with the proportions in the squashed version of my digital image. Because I am cutting a new lino altogether, I have decided to try out the reduction process, so I will print blue as my first colour, cut away more of the lino and then print my black outlines. 

I printed a to scale image of the squashed image and then traced over it making any necessary changes, the main change was making the chess piece thinner but I also altered the flowers and leaves a bit too. 

I feel quite under pressure with time for this print because it is more work on top of my existing workload and I need it to go as planned first time because there is no going back with reduction lino. I am hoping this is the right route to take for this, although it is risky because I have only done reduction lino once before and on a smaller scale. I think people looking around in Colours May Vary will value a reduction lino print more than my initial digital prints because it has a more handmade quality and the fact that they will be limited edition may appeal to some people.