#29 - Hamlet

I've been sketching out ideas for the poster for San Jose Youth Shakespeare's upcoming production of Hamlet. After trying a few different ideas, I think it's starting to gel into something good. Here's the latest:

Seems like a skull is a must do for a Hamlet poster, so this one is reflected in a mirror. Pretty spooky.
I like my sketch, but how to manage the layers and planning? I needed to try it out. I used little blocks and chose parts of the image to work on. I only spent a day on this, and carved at high speed just to get an idea of colors and layers. I still need to put another color on: gray to go over the skull in the mirror, and maybe to add some highlights to the plant life. The test print really gave me some good ideas of things to try, but it also showed me the pitfalls. I do see that a piece like this has to be planned out, every inch of it. Here's my sample print:

#28 - Better Color Scheme

This is happier! Good enough. Onto the next project.

#28 - Silly Harpist Redo

Again I learned a lot doing this print. Am I happy with it? No. The colors are wrong. I want to do it again with different colors. This one is just too dark and makes no sense.

The carving is very good, and it took hours and hours. I have come so far since I began doing linos about 9 months ago. Someday I will look back on this print and be amazed at how my skills again improved. Practice, practice, practice.