Friday, January 24, 2014

Linocut in Progress: Finishing the Guillemot

Guillemot linocut: Step 10
So here we are at the end of this image... and I have mixed feelings about its success. I think it's safe to say that most artists will tell you there are always things they would like to have done differently in a piece, so this should come as no surprise.

My goal was to express the striking contrast of a black bird in bright sunlight. I think the impression works better from a distance so go ahead and get up from your desk now and stand back. You need to get out of that chair for a bit anyway.

The funny thing is that when the image is viewed from a distance the light along the top of the head and bill look a bit clunky. The values run together and there appears to be a light "outline" around the bill.

So what to do? The advantage to the Almighty Photoshop is that I can mess around a bit and see if there might be a simple way to improve this with a little spot inking. It's not a horrible problem, I don't think, but it's worth exploring.

In the meantime, I'm going to turn my attention to a large(r) piece. The drawing of it is turning out to be more complex than I expected, but I'm feeling that twitchy excited feeling that comes with an idea that I'm anxious to tackle. I want to get that first ink color down NOW!

Have a great weekend, everyone... press on!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for your help a couple of posts ago about what sort of ink to use. I've been messing about with watercolour paint while I wait, which isn't very satisfactory!

    I really like the guillemot. I agree with the halo effect around the top of the bill, but probably only because you mentioned it! I love how the red is more subdued now, the value seems spot on to me, through my monitor. It's very ambitious - but I'll stick to a daisy for now! Looking forward to the next mission!

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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...