For reduction linocuts (or suicide prints, as they are sometimes called) registration is key, since the lino will be progressively carved and there is no way to reverse the process.
There are several ways to this, and if you search online you'll no doubt find several of them. I have followed a basic way, which is to create an improvised frame for the lino block on my press and mark the points where I should align the paper.
I printed a poppy in 5 layers of color: yellow, green, red, mauve and black (by order of printing).
To avoid overlap of the red and green, which would produce a darker red, I just covered the poppy with some transfer paper while inking.
It is always a good idea to print much more then you would in a normal one-color process, since in aligning so many colors you will loose some prints.
In this case, I started with a set of 10 prints but ended up only 7 decent ones. In the others the ink did not pass well tot he paper or the lino was not well aligned.
The last block (key block) can also be printed alone, and then media like watercolor can be added, also providing a nice although different effect.
I had struggled a lot with the registration process before. But now that my improvised registration method seems to work reasonably well, I will definitely be doing more reduction linocuts in the future.
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