Daniel Howden won the Relief Award in Jackson’s Art Prize this year with his work The Kitchen Sink. In this interview, Daniel talks about his reductive and layered approach to printmaking, the importance of momentum, and the materials that he can’t live without.
Above image: Daniel Howden’s studio
The Kitchen Sink, 2024
Daniel Howden
Reduction linocut, 30 x 30 cm | 11.8 x 11.8 in
Josephine: Could you tell us about your artistic background?
Daniel: My mum’s always been creative and can turn her hand to a lot of stuff. I think perhaps she passed this on to me from a young age. At school, somewhere between 2004 and 2006, I realised I could make people laugh by creating things – which meant a great deal to me. I wasn’t necessarily good at drawing, nor was I a particularly skilled painter, but I had a very vivid imagination and lots of enthusiasm. I would rope in friends and get them to populate short sketch ‘comedy’ videos that I filmed around York. We briefly stapled together a weekly zine (pamphlet) too, and from time to time, I’d construct hoardings and trophies to add some immersion to park football. The Argos catalogue was never far away and was always good for getting hold of a two-megapixel point-and-shoot or instrument to aid an idea.
Curiously, it never really crossed my mind to learn the intricacies of the tools I was using, everything was done with a lot of imprecision and a big grin. Art theory suffered a similar fate. I had an insane level of patience for certain things and absolutely none for others. All that to say, this formative period was scattered and experimental and continued all the way into higher education.
Daniel Howden at his studio in York.
I was introduced to lino in 2012 when a foundation tutor thankfully suggested that acrylic painting might not be the way forward for me. I took some small lino blocks home to practise and instinctively started to cut them up with scissors. I wasn’t sure how else I was supposed to include the colours I wanted and turning to the internet for pointers felt like defeat. I became quite obsessive and loved the challenge this approach posed. It wasn’t until graduating from Liverpool School of Art and Design three years later in 2015 that I began to produce prints that I thought were passable.
One year on, I managed to get a place at the Royal College of Art to study MA illustration, but the finance involved was steep. Instead, I went to Manchester and a few months later was awarded the 2016 Anthony Dawson Young Printmaker of the Year at the Bankside Gallery in London. I can’t emphasise how important that year was for my development and it really formed the basis for how I approach printmaking today. It also had a profound personal impact too.
Materials and equipment.
Josephine: What does a typical working day in the studio look like for you? Do you have any important routines or rituals?
Daniel: I currently work part-time, so a typical day lacks the momentum I’d like at the minute. If I’m working a morning shift, I’ll return, have lunch and then usually sit from 1:30 pm to midnight and if I’m on an afternoon, I’ll work 5 pm to midnight. Without momentum, I don’t think my approach to linocut is as feasible. There’s quite a lot of planning and rolling required and if I switch off for ten minutes, mistakes can easily creep in. Additionally, if I were to repeatedly leave my desk, there’s a high chance my inks might dry or I’ll forget which parts I’ve already carved out of the block I’m working on.
The time element comes into play a little too. When I set out on a 30 x 30 cm print, I know there’s a likelihood I’ll be looking at the same photograph for weeks, so It’s preferable to tackle it in fewer stints.
Since turning 32 last month, I’ve stripped away a couple of my longstanding rituals. I’ve removed caffeine from my life, and lyrics have always distracted me, so I now have a big jug of water nearby and I tend to listen to long, peaceful Animal Crossing soundtracks on YouTube that I don’t have to interfere with.
A drawn out lino block.
Josephine: Which materials or tools could you not live without?
Daniel: I really haven’t deviated too far from the materials I was using back in 2012, to be honest. Back then it was quite make-do. My mum donated a couple of glass chopping boards to the cause for me to roll my inks onto – I still use those. And up until very recently I used the same cheap and cheerful Scola 300 ml water-based inks that can probably be found in most schools. Since winning the Relief Award I’ve started to use Cranfield relief inks, which have been a very nice change.
Polymer linoleum blocks are essential, however. These have been a staple since the beginning. I don’t think they’re branded, I’ve never really stopped to check. Without this type of lino I wouldn’t have been able to produce the work that I have so far. I just really wish it came in larger sizes. 30 x 30 cm is my default dimension and I think 40 x 30 cm is their ceiling. I’ve recently begun supergluing squares of it together to make 60 x 60 cm sheets, getting my hands on a genuine block of that size would be a game-changer.
During my master’s in 2017, I experimented with paper stock a lot and Soft White Somerset Satin 300 gsm became my firm paper of choice. It’s certainly essential and I’ve always bought it from Jackson’s. It’s super reliable and fantastic at absorbing the inks, making it permissible for me to layer the way I do and with confidence, which is needed when you’re many, many registrations deep and pushing the paper to the limit.
Josephine: Do you employ any unique techniques in your printmaking process?
Daniel: I feel as though every couple of years, without necessarily trying, I’ll discover a cool little trick that I didn’t know my tools were capable of. Some are fairly obvious, others not so much. Before I graduated from university, I accidentally stumbled upon a really strange cutting motion that’s effective for carving trees and foliage. And during my master’s, when I had to work at a breakneck pace, I found that gently pressing little scraps of paper onto a wet layer can both dry and reduce the colour of the ink without damaging the ink beneath. It’s not really for me to say what’s unique but I think maybe the jigsaw approach and the degree to which I’ve doubled down on it is fairly unusual. It demands a lot of focus and attention and takes a considerable amount of time and effort. I’ve been refining it since 2012, so it’s twelve years in the making at this point.
The registrations are a byproduct of the technique, I guess. I cut up the blocks which encourages more detail and I employ the number of layers I do because of the shading and realism I’m trying to depict.
Townhouse, 2023
Daniel Howden
Reduction linocut, 30 x 30 cm | 11.8 x 11.8 in
Josephine: Do you regularly draw or keep a sketchbook? If so, how does this inform your work?
Daniel: I don’t keep sketchbooks anymore. I haven’t for quite some time as they started to feel a little forced after university. I want my prints to look as realistic as possible and I don’t think a sketch of mine is the optimum starting point for that – so I document potential ideas with my phone instead.
If I come across something in the world that ticks boxes for a lino (these days I often know immediately) I’ll snap it from every conceivable angle. So when I inevitably return to my potential lino folder at a later date, I have options and can get a good feel for whether it’s right to draw up. I guess this is my version of sketching.
Print chest
Josephine: Have you ever had a period of stagnation in creativity? If so, what helped you overcome it?
Daniel: Oh for sure, but I find they occur when I stop leaving the house as much. I’m a big fan of Feng shui and sometimes just moving a piece of furniture can sharpen my focus. In 2022 my partner and I went on a big trip around Europe and I came back with a tonne of imagery and ideas that were vital for my practice. I don’t recall another time my inspiration had been so low, but then again living permanently indoors can do that, I guess.
I worked so much between 2014 – 2021 without a break so I’m trying to get into the habit of carving some time for myself here and there. There have been a couple of instances in the last few years where I’ve stopped printing for maybe a month, which then rolls into two. Whilst I’m always anxious I’ll forget everything, it doesn’t feel as wrong as it used to and often I come back with an improved way of working.
Ten to Ten, 2021
Daniel Howden
Reduction linocut, 30 x 40 cm | 11.8 x 15.7 in
Josephine: Are there any specific artists or mentors who have inspired you?
Daniel: Linocut is a fairly abstract and impressionistic medium. It’s not something you’d necessarily use to capture a photographic quality. I understand this. Yet, my practice aims to push lino to its capacity and create the most realistic imagery I can given the constraints. Whilst I certainly don’t think my work is going to be mistaken for an oil painting or a photograph, I’d like there to be a moment of hesitation regarding what it is. It’s this challenge that’s kept me hooked all this time.
If you’ll indulge the analogy for a second, it’s somewhat comparable to the visuals of the Nintendo DS – a video game system that I find greatly inspiring.
I owned each iteration of this console from 2005 – 2011 and there were a handful of video games that tried so hard to pack realistic visuals into a tiny, wafer-thin cartridge. The graphics of these games landed in this beautiful, confused territory of almost crossing the line into realism, but ultimately failing because of the hardware limitations of Nintendo devices at the time. Of course, most games set out to offer immersive graphics. But it was the attempt to do so on this particular system, a system that simply wasn’t made to handle that much data, that captured my imagination and still does. Linocut, to me, almost acts as a filter for my photography.
As a postgraduate at uni, I was fortunate enough to have linocut royalty Christopher Brown as a tutor. His 2012 book An Alphabet of London was a huge influence on me at the time. I’ve gone back a few times for compositional inspiration.
All of My Certificates, Tekken and Little Tikes framed.
Josephine: How did it feel to realise you had won the Relief Award?
Daniel: My experience of being a lino artist has always been quite solitary. Although I really do enjoy that element of it, I know others who manage to make it more social, either by sharing a studio space or having a wider circle of artistic friends. It can be quite unnerving when the primary source of feedback/validation/gauging competence is the number of pings or love hearts on your phone. I was, and still am, incredibly grateful and surprised to have been awarded this, especially given the wild amount of talent and varied approaches in the longlist alone. Opportunities like this one, for printmakers, are especially rare and it was a great relief to have been selected.
Monolith II, 2022
Daniel Howden
Reduction linocut, 56 x 40 cm | 22.05 x 15.7 in
Josephine: Your lino print is made up of a staggering 277 registrations – how long does this process take? Do you work with so many layers in all your prints?
Daniel: Layering is a fundamental element of my practice given my reductive approach to printmaking and at this point, it would be quite unusual for a piece of mine not to exceed 100 registrations (depending on scale).
When I first left university I was very keen to stress the number of colours in each print I made, which makes sense as it was new and I was still refining the process. There reached a point though where it all felt a little empty and I wanted the emphasis to be placed on the subject matter instead, rather than the technique. So I stopped keeping track as much and steadily started making work that was of interest to me.
I’ve never managed to produce more than ten editions of a print run before. That’s partly down to studio space and also due to the sheer length of time it would take. The Kitchen Sink took just over a month in total and there were five editions. That’s 1385 registrations in all – which is a lot.
The most I’ve ever done in a single print was Monolith II in 2022 which contained 442 registrations, had nine editions and was 56 x 40 cm. I worked on it full time and It took a little over two months to produce. I don’t think I’ll be looking to surpass that anytime soon.
It is possible for me to create smaller, singular works within the space of a week without compromising anything, and this is something I’m hoping to do more of moving forward.
The Kitchen Sink editions
Josephine: The Kitchen Sink is a scene of everyday life that I’m sure many people will be intimately familiar with. Why are you drawn to this subject matter?
Daniel: The Kitchen Sink is part of an ongoing series I’m slowly working on that depicts saturated artificial objects in close proximity to one another. Plastic is foul, let’s get that straight, but it’s here and it has a visual quality that my eye is drawn to. I think the way I layer ink is also quite effective at recreating its surface, whether that’s matte or shiny, as well as its vivid colour. I find that I’m really drawn to sunbleached materials, especially when they’re against a natural backdrop – that contrast is lino territory for me.
The Kitchen Sink is of a window display I came across in Germany. Believe it or not, what I illustrated is only a fraction of the chaos I saw.
Whilst I’m a fan of vintage containers and saucers, it was the cluttered mess, quantity, and sheen of the objects that led me to print it.
Josephine: What’s coming up next for you?
Daniel: I’m currently in the process of relocating to London to be with my partner. That’s taking up most of my time at the moment, and so I’ve downed tools the last few months. I’m also putting the finishing touches to my portfolio which I hope to present to some agencies in the near future.
Further Reading
Linocut Carving Techniques for Beginners
Top Linocut Tips from Leading Printmakers
In Conversation With John Cogley, Daniel Smith
Shop Printmaking on jacksonsart.com
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