Saturday, August 25, 2012

It's a linocut!

Alrighty, then! Back to work. My technique still feels a bit wobbly after entirely too much time away from the print bench, but just like a long walk after too much sitting every step feels stronger.

I am scheduled to give a demonstration during the "Artists in Action" portion of the Birds in Art opening weekend at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, so I decided I'd tackle a "simple" bird. One that I could have mostly finished before the event so my demonstration would reveal the dramatic finish.

Right.

In theory I did choose a "simple" bird... it's a gull, for heaven's sake. White and gray and black with a yellow bill. But if you've been reading Brush and Baren for any length of time, you know that I have a gift for turning simple into complicated. It's one of my best skills, actually.

Here's how it's gone so far:

The first two colors were done with a mask. Just the bill and a ring around the eye. Easy peasey.


And then a light gray.


So far, so good. But of course I knew I needed a second gray. Interestingly enough (to me, anyway), I didn't mix a new gray. The first one had a LOT of transparent medium... in fact the ink was mixed with no white at all, just black and transparent medium. So a second transparent layer over the first made a nice, subtle change.


And then a third gray. This time I added a touch more black to the already-mixed ink, just to step up the contrast with the lower layers.


Never one to leave well enough alone, I decided on one more color before the obligatory waiting-for-ink-to-dry stage. A very transparent blue.


Clearly this is already more complicated than I wanted for my demonstration piece, but that's okay because I realized at this stage that it CAN'T be my demonstration piece.


I've been printing using my large registration jig– not the small, portable one. I have to finish printing on the same jig I started with or the registration won't work! (sigh) Oh, well. Guess that means I'll have to start another print this weekend. Darn.*

(*That was sarcasm.)

5 comments:

  1. Not laughing,Sherrie.Oh, no, because I carved something without reversing my cartoon.
    Big sigh...

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  2. Just as well as that leaves you to finish this as you'd like, and not pressured by your demonstration.

    This is already quite lovely, rich and textured--I was quite impressed by how much interest you managed to get by your second pass--the light grey.

    I like the wood-texture thing going on with the area below the bird and the two-tone yellow beak.

    If this is what you can do when you are "rusty" you should keep taking time off.

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  3. Oh, no... you wouldn't laugh, Dinahmow! ;-) (C'mon, I heard you chortling clear in the other hemisphere.)

    Thanks, Andrew. I'm at the paranoia stage, now. I like where it's going... but can I hold it together?

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  4. I love what the transparent blue does...brightens up the grey and pops out the yellow bill/eye.

    And why is it that simple and easy, so easily gets complicated?

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  5. What you learned about printing reflections on water seems like it's informing what you're doing with this gull. It's a beautiful and interesting already!

    Too bad you "have to" start another print this weekend. It's a hard life being a printmaker, but someone's got to do it. Good thing you don't have a deadline or anything.... (Hah!)

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