Linocut in Progress: The subtle finish

The last phase of the sunset linocut was trickier than I expected. I wanted one final transparent color to add a little more contrast to the sky and a subtle suggestion of additional shapes in the mountains.

My first attempt was WAY too dark... It overpowered the entire image. (Even with wet ink glare in the middle, sorry.) Thankfully the test was made on a print that had torn and already been rejected. (You can see the big ol' hole halfway up on the right side.)

Oops. That color is TOO DARK.

So. Plan B. I scrubbed off the block, the roller, and the inking slab and added a ton more transparent base to the blue I started with. The good news about that bad color was that it showed me I didn't really like the shapes I had left in the sky, either... So I went back and did a lot more carving of small, energetic strokes in the clouds.

Sunset linocut, Step... 7? I think.

I'm happy with the sky now, but that same color applied in the mountains didn't really show at all, except as a shiny patch. So one more attempt to mix a transparent purple-blue that will be subtle in the lower half of the image.

Sunset linocut, Step 8, final

The last color looks a little more contrasty in this image than it does in real life, but I suspect that's a limitation of the camera phone. (It seems to struggle with blues.) When everything's dry enough that I can take the piece outside in good light I'll get a proper shot and share it.

At any rate, glad that's finished and able to dry for a couple of days now. I'm headed to the Front Range yet again tomorrow... to deliver sold work to the Governor's Show, and to a collector, and to teach a little workshop for Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory's "On the Wing" youth camp. Back on Wednesday and ready to tackle the next set of tasks for this busy summer.