After settling on a sketch, I made a clean sketch on printer paper with sharpie in the desired dimensions. Then I placed the paper drawing side down on the linoleum block. I transferred the drawing by rubbing on it with acetone.

After carving the image into the linoleum block, I applied several layers of black ink with a roller. I then stamped it onto a piece of test paper.

I planned a gradient effect in Photoshop, then cut out a smaller piece of linoleum around the same shape as the crow. After careful measuring, I printed the gradient by itself, positioned exactly where I intended it to be relative to the black part of the print.

After printing the gradient, I used the fully carved linoleum block to print on top of the gradient. Below is a side-by-side comparison of the print without and with the gradient.