Yellows + Blue = A bunch of colors

I'd like to say it was a confident and definitive action that led to the next step of this linocut, but really it was more about wanting to see big progress... and that meant big ink.

So after some more carving it was back to the ultra-transparent-bright-blue-over-everything trick that I worked out in the previous coot-on-water print.

It's a lot of inking, by golly. (And in case you're wondering, that's a skosh of pthalo blue in a mound of transparent base. Purdy.)

And now it gets really fun, I think. You can see where we're going with the water ripples.... essentially a great, big horizontal ring. I'm hoping that means my choice of format makes more sense now. The left-hand side will be darker and greener. I could have been inking the entire piece all along, but it just seemed like too many opportunities for registration to go astray when the yellows don't appear on the left side anyway.

Here's a slightly closer look. I'm tickled with the variety of colors in the reflection. It's what I hoped for, but I wasn't at all sure it would work.

The always-questionable lighting in my studio is further compromised by intensely overcast skies today (*which did finally turn into about four drops of rain)... so the photos are coming out really contrasty-looking. Here's one more shot of the prints on the rack, with every light in the room pointed at them. A little more accurate... you just have to turn your head or your monitor sideways to see it.

I think we're back to the bird after this, and then the drama will really crank up. I hope.