New Website Link

Find me at www.karenmacauley.com

Sorry for the Spammy Postings

I posted this, and then a ton of my old posts posted right after this, burying it. So, to reiterate:

www.karenmacauley.com
I'm moving over to Wordpress because Blogger is having technical problems that I haven't been able to solve hates me. Please visit my new blog website and choose to follow via RSS or enter your email address to receive posts.

Update

Those of you who got my blog by email WILL have to sign up to continue to receive the new blog posts. Go to the new website at http://copperplateart.wordpress.com/ and fill in your email address on the right side of the page. Let me know if you need assistance.

Moving to Wordpress

http://copperplateart.wordpress.com/

I'm moving over to Wordpress because Blogger is having technical problems that I haven't been able to solve. Please change your RSS feed readers. Those of you who get my blog via email don't have to do anything: I will sign you up at the new location.

Building the Store, Brick by Brick

I've been working for three straight days adding items to my store. It still have lots of spitting and polishing to do, but all but two items are listed. In total I will have 42. I have a list of ideas and pieces that I want to do, so I'm sure that I will be able to reach my goal of 60 items within a reasonable amount of time. So, all the folks who have been asking to buy art and cards from me can now easily do so, and that makes me happy. All the money I earn will go into making more art, trying new techniques and branching out. Learning. And buying boring things like rigid mailing envelopes. *yawn*.

I'm looking forward to cutting the ribbon on Labor Day! Spock is unimpressed, but I'm excited.

Still Here

 

I have done a piece since completing the Hamlet poster, but no peeking for ya'll. Some pieces are personal, and one of a kind. So, you get a picture of linochad as a consolation prize. It was on my desk posing for this photo, but within days it had worked its way around the carpeted areas of our house.

I worked very hard today on inputing items into my Artfire store. I haven't made it to 60 items yet, but one year of hard work has resulted in 40 items. That's enough for me at this point. Since the art isn't flowing in a fast and furious manner that it once was, it's time for grunt work and search engine optimization. Ugh. Facebook. Ugh. There must be a better way. Somebody send me a Google+ invite, I implore you.

The perfect is the enemy of the good. I will be ready to cut the ribbon on my good store by September 5th.

Final Hamlet Poster

Here's the final artwork that I used for San Jose Youth Shakespeare's production of Hamlet. The play is halfway through it's run, and it's excellent. See it if you are in the area!

If you are with a non-profit Shakespeare company, and would like to use this image for your poster, please do. Just let me know, and I will send you a high res image.

Honor Upon Honor

Here are the hands of my friend. My friend who was the catalyst that lit the fuse that touched off the art inferno in my life. He is hanging a piece on his wall by the artist whose work made me choose linocut as a medium. Right next to that is a piece I made. I was bowled over by this moment. My memory of it will always be clearer than this photo... which I guess means that it might get rather blurry and yellow over time.

Here's the artwork:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/12713584/merman-original-linocut

And the hands:
http://www.harpmusic.com/

#29 - Hamlet Poster - In Which the Fountain Splits

Today was a long day in the studio. A bit grueling, but very successful. I did my first real split fountain, and I think it came out really well. Always trying to learn new things. The first step in the process was sort of ridiculous: I spent nearly two hours just mixing ink to get the right color. The rest of the process went like this:
Get the inks and brayers all raring to go...

Ink up the title...

Ink up the middle...

Ink up the gradation at the bottom...

Ink up the gradation at the top...

Press that sucker... Lather, rinse and repeat 28 times.

#29 - Welcome to Linochadia

I got the big OK from the director, and off we go! This should be a pretty straightforward piece. The only thing that will require a little futzing around will be the split fountain background.

Here's the first block, waiting in anticipation of the gouge:

And here it is, all done, waiting in anticipation of the ink:

I've made buckets of linochad already, and my studio is Linochadia. Ah, the feel of strips of lino stuck to the bottom of one's feet! Track it 'round, I say! Track it everywhere! Track it to the outskirts of our fair home!

#29 - Hamlet Is Finally Feeling Final, And That's That.

I really have drawn this to death. Even the guy in the mirror died, right? This piece feels ready to print. I just need to get feedback from the director of the play. I hope he gives me the thumbs up, but if not, his input is always excellent and helpful. All of his suggestions have led to better sketches. There's no reason not to improve on this, so I'm ready for whatever he says.

I've had to distill things down to be more basic so that the various parts of the composition harmonize rather than do battle with each other. Also, certain elements started looking like other things: the circle looked like an eyeball, the fleur de lis (which are now gone) looked like Dickensian lamp posts - things like that. Now everything looks like what it is supposed to be. I'm going for the look of nature growing up into the man made.

#29 - Hamlet, Hamlet, Hamlet

I've sketched, cut, pasted, Sharpied, White-Outed, photocopied and stared at this poster. I've been working on it pretty much every day since my last post, but I haven't been happy with anything I've made until now. It has been a difficult process, especially the not liking it part. I think I've finally achieved a visual harmony, with all of the elements marrying well. I'm beginning to love it, and am looking forward to doing a final sketch.

So, here's the latest.

#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.

#27 - The Violin is Done!

I put this on the scanner wet:

Click to Embiggen

This print was an adventure. I got to go down new paths and make new discoveries around each corner.

#27 - Bet You Still Can't Guess What It Is . . .

Please excuse this woeful excuse for a photo. The camera batteries are dead, so iPhone saves the day. The darkest green is really much lighter, and the yellow is brighter. Trust me: it looks more harmonious. So, this is up to four colors, and I'm done with the first block. The next block will contain the mysterious creature, the flowers and some accents on the background. I'm very excited about it, and can't wait to get back into my studio to carve and print.

By the way, the press is amazing. The prints are so much cleaner, and it's now rare for me to completely flub a print. I can print lickity split. It used to take many moons.

#27 - Can You Guess?

I'm not going to reveal the sketch so you can watch the image unveiling.

Also:

A big, heavy pile of lino. This will be enough for at least 11 prints.

#26 - Better Image of Final

Taking Stock

This blog is about my progress as I learn linocut techniques and discover how to fearlessly make art. It's also about creating an inventory of 60 items for my ArtFire store. Recently, I had several of my reduction prints made into greeting cards, and some of my images can be hand printed onto blank greeting cards. As a result, I have more "items" than I have pieces of art. Overall I now have 39 items with a wide variety of price points. Only 21 more to go. I'm going to be focusing on 8x10 and 9x12 color reduction prints. I'm looking forward to making all that art. I'm excited to see what will happen.