Monday, November 8, 2010

A little linocut progress

My Queendom for a really big ink roller. Something thirteen inches wide or better would be great for  a 12-inch high linocut like the one I'm working on now. Had I such a beast in my printmaking arsenal, today's second color could have been applied simultaneously with the first in a blended roll. But alas... my largest brayer is just 8" wide. (sigh)

 No matter. I can fake a blended roll. You all saw the first color.... a solid light blue. To give the effect of a gradation, I mixed today's color by adding some purple to the blue and a LOT of transparent base. I then rolled this transparent color in a gradation of color-to-nothingness along the width of my 8" brayer.


I'm not sure if you can tell from this image, but the fade-to-nothing roll-up was run only along the top edge of the block. The ink is quite transparent... in this shot the block is ready to print. (Once it gets aligned correctly in the corner of the registration jig, that is.)


Ta daa! One dark-to-light, 12-inch-wide gradation faked.

Now I get to obsess about whether this qualified as "the easy part" of this particular image. What the heck color am I going to print next?

5 comments:

  1. Cool! That's some pretty ingenious fakery there, and a fine-looking print already. You are amazing, and I hope you know it. ;~)

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  2. Good economy means doing well with what you have. Two passes instead of one means an extra step but is not a trick and in theory gives you more control over the gradation, no?

    Nice blues.

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  3. I like this already. Can't wait for the next colour.

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  4. Whats a bit of arty fakery amongst friends? I think it shows ingenuity and experiance. This is looking rather scrummy. I like the tracery of the shadows (?) - it's fun to see an image materialise.

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  5. Absolutely agree with all the comments above. It's not fakery, it's ingenuity (sp?). My latest lino produced two editions, not sure whether that's *legal* or not but it felt right. so it happened. Involved turning the lino on its head at one point and using a top only bit of inking to create a critical slice of sky! As far as I can see Sherrie, as long as it's your hard work and your idea, then it's fine by me :)

    REALLY looking forward to seeing this one develop. I know what you mean about long periods of cutting, the concentration is intense isn't it?

    AnnL

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Linocut in Progress: The Third Act

Time to wrap up this linocut ! And we are wrapping at warp speed (see what I did there?)... because there are deadlines. Exhibition deadline...