#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: