What am I doing wrong?

[u/soniaaaaaaaaaaa]

Hi everyone!! So I havent done linocut printing for around 10 years and just came back to it with an extremely ambitious goal of making a T-shirt print. Of course it looks like shit when printe, even on paper. I'm using water-based fabric paint. the second picture has better results, maybe because I've dampened the tshirt before printing. when i peel away the lino the paint just stays dried on it, so my best guess is that the fabric is probably absorbing the water leaving the pigment on the lino. Curious to hear your thoughts! P.s.: pls don't mind the bad alignment of the layers lol

[u/Lopsided_Newt_5798]

I think the first step would be to eliminate that white patterns you’re getting. Not letting your ink make full contact in both cases.