Saturday, January 18, 2014

Linocut in Progress: Guillemot... getting close!

Guillemot linocut: Step 8
So now we arrive at the moment in which Sherrie's impatience could set us over the edge. This pass was a transparent brown/blue over the entire block, which is doing nice things to the background. I'm not at all convinced that the shape is what I want in the upper portion, but it's a little late for that now.

It's possible that only one pass remains to complete this linocut... which would mean a print accomplished in single-digit passes! Almost unheard of around here.

But there's a lot of carving to do before I commit to just one more color, AND I'm afraid there's a lot of waiting for ink to dry. Even after several days in my very warm studio the tan pass probably wasn't quite dry enough, but I was twitchy to print so I forged ahead. Now I absolutely must wait.

The good news is that I have a larger piece ready to go. Well. It will be ready to go as soon as I mount new lino and prep a stack of paper. Details, details! The next one will be more about the landscape than the birds. Time to look at the "big" picture for a while.

3 comments:

  1. This is fantastic - it's really nice to see how each pass develops.
    Can I ask which paint you use? Is it oil based? I'm just about to get my first beginner set of carving tools and lino so am pretty clueless ;) It's great to be so inspired though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Helen -

    I use the Daniel Smith oil-based relief inks. It's important to use ink rather than paint... the vehicle used to suspend the pigment particles is different, and oil-based paint could cause problems with your paper over time.

    I can't really recommend the Speedball relief inks... they're just too... something. Too many additives in the ink, I think. DS inks have none, which slows the drying time but gives a better result overall.

    Anyone else want to chime in?

    ReplyDelete
  3. single digits?!?! are you feeling well? ;)

    the print looks good :) love the red feet

    ReplyDelete

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...