That meant the first order of business was some select inking and printing. Just this little bit behind the birds' heads. The gray-green that was there was just too dark, so I mixed up a very pale gray, semi-transparent.
Not sure if you can really see the difference here but, trust me, it's better.
There are some small bright green bits, a sort of iridescence, in the top of the birds' heads and in their wings, so that color went down next, just across the middle of the image.
Since neither of these two ink layers interacted much with each other or with the next intended color, I went ahead and printed a third today. It turned out to be a tiny bit too ambitious– on the last two prints the tacky green ink "re-stuck" itself to the block when I was burnishing the blue and pulled up some paper. I'm not worried... I started with plenty of extra this time because I thought I might be pushing some limits.
Three (I think) more colors to go... 8 are down already. Through no great planning on my part it has worked out that I could do a lot of "selective" inking, so the ink layers remain quite thin. I like that the quality of the impression in the background is light and "airy" (watery?)... I can't decide if the darkness of the birds' bodies will be a nice contrast or too much... we'll see when we get there, I guess.
Very nice image Sherrie, I like the colors and composition.
ReplyDeleteYou and Studio V are working very well together! Lovely work.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your "progress" posts...just love seeing how this comes about and how you make your changes...very nice piece-in-progress!
ReplyDeleteYou got my husband to get up from his new addictive computer game and come take a look, so I would say it is a very successful piece already. Hee-hee. I love it, too. I do like the contrast between birds' solid bodies and that wonderful flowing water. Can't wait to see the end result!
ReplyDeleteOh, Sherrie! This is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteErin