Monday, March 21, 2011

Blue + Yellow = Blue! Hooray!

A nervous moment this morning when I lifted the corner of the first blue-over-yellows attempt...

Who says you can't print blue over yellow? Click to embiggen.
Yup. That'll do. Actually, I might make another blue pass tomorrow... the value seems a skosh darker than what I want, but I need to wait until it dries more before I decide. Sherrie-the-Impatient's need to get this blue down this morning when yesterday's yellow was still tacky made for a little more color lifting than was... erm... entirely necessary.

I was so nervous about this step that my original design called for a lot of this blue to get covered up in subsequent passes. Now I think I might fudge the design and try to hold a little more blue, just because I like it so much.

So... for those of you wondering if I sold my soul or something to get this to work... the short answer is no! I'm working with oil-based inks, and the addition of copious amounts of titanium white to ultramarine blue made it opaque enough cover the yellows. I used no transparent base at all.

I would have liked to have the blue transparent... I love the luminosity of transparent inks over the bright white Hosho paper... but this is not an image for which I wanted to carve multiple blocks. I lose interest if things get too complicated and if I can't do a certain amount of "impulse carving" along the way. Now that I know this works, though... I'm already thinking about other images.
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8 comments:

  1. Karen Martin SampsonMarch 21, 2011 at 3:09:00 PM EDT

    I think this is stunningly beautiful! Good going! I love the rhythm of design and the balance of the colours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jennifer RoseMarch 21, 2011 at 7:37:00 PM EDT

    love the colours and sense of movement in this :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Marissa BuschowMarch 21, 2011 at 9:42:00 PM EDT

    Hmm, my once-ever blue-over-yellow attempt didn't turn out well at all. That was using watercolors as ink, though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CaroleMarch 21, 2011 at 9:44:00 PM EDT

    It's gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 21, 2011 at 10:30:00 PM EDT

    "Skosh"? Is that a precise printing term? Okay, seriously, Wow! It's a treat to see your work going in new directions. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ellen ShipleyMarch 22, 2011 at 11:50:00 AM EDT

    This looks great. One caveat using oil-based inks over each other -- they get shiny after 3 or 4 passes, so you might want to keep that in mind. It looks gorgeous right now. 8-]

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sherrie YorkMarch 22, 2011 at 3:01:00 PM EDT

    Yes, Susan, of COURSE it's a precise term. Much more precise, for example, than the word "splooge." ;-)

    Ellen, I always use oil-based inks, and find that keeping layers as thin as possible prevents premature shininess. The chief culprit seems to be white ink... if I'm careful about how much I use, I usually do alright.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wendy WillisMarch 22, 2011 at 9:52:00 PM EDT

    This is already a favorite of mine! I embiggened it a skosh.

    ReplyDelete

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