Lino block printing (thinking about it)

I am preparing to do the next step of this textiles design degree - I am gathering my tools and materials. I will create a print from lino but not sure what the image will be yet. I have the lino, cutting tools and paint but need to get some more different types of paper to experiment with.

Masking

This is the remainder of work I had to do for project 1: masked monoprints. Here I have used acrylic paints - much easier to work with than oils as they can be thinned with water. I also decided to use linen as my canvas because I intended for my degree course to be in textile design.
First I drew freestyle onto cardboard, cut out with scissors to create a positive mask and used a bunched up sponge to apply the paint - I liked the texture this gave but it bled out under the mask making the outline not so clear (image 1).
I then decided to use a paintbrush imagining that this would give a cleaner outline but it actually seemed to come out worse (image 2).
This made me realise that cardboard is probably too thick as a mask - the mask needs to be very close to the canvas so that paint cannot seep underneath so I tried paper but this time I also chose paper for my canvas and decided to try the negative mask method by painting around the cut out. I used the sponge again and then the paint brush (image 3 left and right respectively). The outline on both of these was quite clear (apart from the bottom where I tried to lift away the mask).
The next part of the masking project was to create a two colour masked piece - I decided to add a second lighter colour green by mixing with white to put some lights on the tree. I made a positive mask from paper and a hole punch and dabbed the medium on with the paint brush (image 4). The outcome was ok - maybe the paint was a little too thick (image 6) - something to think about if I attempt this again.
Image 5 shows my negative and positive masks made from cardboard and paper.

If I decide to do mask work on fabric in the future I will try to use a mask made from acrylic sheeting and also on thinner fabric. The material I used here was old hand woven linen so was heavy with an uneven slub weave and hard to iron so probably didn't help in getting a clean outline to the image.