Linocut in progress: Not quite finished

Guillemot linocut: Step 9

Well, it appears we're going to need one more step on this guillemot linocut, so I won't be able to say I kept it to single digit passes this time. I did try a darker color at this point and it was just too drastic.

So the "real" last step to come will put darkest bits into the bird. A few dark spots will still be in the background, I think, but I don't want them to flatten everything out by being the same value as the bird's head. If the first print doesn't look right then I I'll take ALL the material out of the background and it will stay as it appears now. But you never know.

I printed this color two days ago and hoped to be able to print the last color today, but the ink is still a little too tacky. Maybe tomorrow afternoon or Saturday I'll be able to wrap this one up.

In the meantime, I've started drawing up a larger piece, 12" x 18." The color palette is very subdued, so I'm hoping that THIS one will stay under 10 passes.