#16 - Dancer - Second Run Color

Here's the color I selected for the second color scheme: dusty green.

#16 - Ballet Dancer is Doing the Jig

I pulled ten prints, and it took about two hours. Each print took a great deal of inking time because my large brayer is ruined, so I was forced to use my 1.5" wide brayer on this 9x12" block. Rollin', rollin', rollin'.

I wasn't able to mix the color I wanted because the Speedball blue (the only blue they make) has too much green in it. When mixed with white, it takes on more of a teal hue. It does look blue in the photos above, but in reality it's more greenish. I intend to upgrade my ink to a much finer printer's ink ASAP. The set I want comes with 16 colors, and let's just say that it will take awhile to pay for itself.

I'm going to pull another ten prints in a completely different color scheme so that I can increase the likelihood of having a piece that's pleasing. I have no idea what color. I also have no idea what I will carve out for the next unknown color. Mysterious adventure...

#17 - An Open Invitation

Click to see details, and come to the show if you are nearby!

Buy tickets here: www.youthshakes.org

UPDATE: The image is upside down! Ack! Supposed to be the happy face on top. Oh well, the posters and t-shirts are correct.

#16 - Dancer Is Ready for Her First Color

The first color will be very pale. I'm coming down with a cold, so it will have to wait.

The Silly Harpist Once More

Oh, and I've started carving the ballet dancer. Freewheeling!

#16 - Rewind to the Ballet Dancer

Well, after a few hours of tweaking, cutting, taping, white-outing and Photoshopping, I think I've finally arrived at a dancer with reasonably accurate proportions. Drawing people is not my strong suit, so this was hard work.

So, do you want to go on an adventure with me? I'm going to carve and print without a plan and see what happens. The sketch above will be the guideline.You can watch the whole show! It could be a complete bomb, but I can always throw it all away, can't I? I have the power!

Click on this delightful photo to make it larger than you see here...

Here it is. Sorry, I wish I knew how to take better photos. The lines are at right angles to each other at the edge of the design, but this shows them as distorted. The colors are also very vibrant in the original print.

I have only printed a few of the prints with black, but this is enough for now! I need a break.

This method for creating a color print makes it possible to print more than one color a day. With the reduction printing method, the colors actually lay over one another, making a mess if you try to print before the first color is dry. But with this method, the colors just kiss at the edges. Today I was able to print two colors. Tomorrow I will do the blue and black, and then I will be done! Huzzah!

I have only wasted two prints, and both deliberately. I used them to test color and make judgments about registration issues. I would say that my skills have significantly improved since I made that previous playing card print. I planned well for this one. About a third of the time spent on this piece was planning. I thought that the final tally of hours spent on this print would be embarrassing, but it will only be about 70 hours.

I will post the final tomorrow, I hope!

#17 - Comedy of Errors - One Down, Four to Go

Bad Photo Alert

The first color is down. The most difficult and time-consuming layer do to the large amount of inking. I made 35 prints in hopes of ending up with 25. I keep feeling a nagging worry that perhaps I have made some huge mistake that I just haven't noticed yet. I'm not sure where that worry is coming from. Maybe it's that I'm trying a new way of registering the colors, so feel like I'm flying blind. I won't know if the colors are well registered until I put the black on, which is last step.

I'm using two kinds of paper. One is machine made rice paper called Masa, and the other is handmade paper called Kozo, which is made of mulberry. It's translucent, and so delicate that it seems like you could eat it.

#17 - Comedy of Errors Test Print

Ten hours of work today. I am wiped out. But, I did a test print in water-based ink to see how it all registers. Yeah, it will be fine. In fact, it's a little bit of all right. Now, to bed!

Brush and Baren: Two linocuts, 19 colors, eleven days

Brush and Baren: Two linocuts, 19 colors, eleven days

This gal in the midst of an amazing reduction linocut frenzy!

"I wish I was a linoblocker."

Your wish is my command.

#17 - The Comedy of Errors - Slap Happy!

Clique to Embiggen

Here it is! Well, a print of the black plate, anyway. I will scan this and transfer the image onto the other four blocks. Those will be EASY to carve by comparison.

I can hardly believe that I carved this. I'm looking at pieces I did just a few months ago, and the carving (while nice) shows that I had far less control over the blade. So, I wonder where the plateau is. Will I be an insanely good carver by the time I reach my 60 piece goal? I remember watching a little documentary about the making of the Incredibles. In it, the artists were told to "push", meaning: How far can you take this idea? Can it go just a little further? Now, can you push it even more? That's what I'm mindful of as I'm making a new piece. Push.

#17 - Testing the Limits of Linoleum

I used an X-acto knife for some of this carving. I still need to do a little clean-up work, but I'm so pleased with this carving. I don't think it's possible to get thinner lines, but I will keep trying!

I've spent about ten hours carving the black block. I probably will spend another six hours on it. Overall, I've spent almost thirty hours on this piece so far. I will probably be too embarrassed to announce how much time this print took me when I finally finish. Fortunately, the time flies by because what I'm doing is so enjoyable.

#17 - Permission Granted: The Adventure Begins

Ah, the smell of linoleum, the shavings flying! Would be heavenly bliss if my shoulder didn't complain about the party.

It's been a long week of waiting for the go ahead to start making this piece. Tough to wait. It's going to be a peach. Maybe even epic, at least compared to what I've made so far.

I spent the time this week perusing books about the woodcut printing of the Edo period in Japan. Did you know that James Michener wrote an entire book on the subject? I also got four books on woodblock printing to get an idea of what the process entails. Woodblock printing is another world. I may visit that world.

#17 - Comedy of Errors - Revised Sketch - UPDATE: Final Piece Added

SCROLL DOWN FOR FINAL PIECE

Pretty close to complete... I want to do a split fountain effect on the masks, blending in white. I may get rid of the lines coming out of the mouths since they are a little ambiguous. The changes I made are essentially ones that made it look more like a playing card. I added the hands and made the whole thing more of a mirror image. I think this accentuates the happy/sad drama mask difference since everything else is more consistent. I look at this and it seems decisive to me, and that's a goal I'm always shooting for with my art.

UPDATE:
This page gets a lot of hits, so I thought I would post the completed piece as well: