Linocut in Progress: Finally

At long last I have a new linocut in progress. With my focus strongly on seabirds for the past twelve months it seemed strange to be contemplating something other... and it took a surprising amount of time for me to settle on a new subject.

Of course once I decided, the universe conspired to keep me from working. I didn't have enough paper on hand to start a large piece, so I gave myself "a few more days" of break and ordered paper.

Correction. I backordered paper. Supplier out of stock.

After a few days delay I received notice that a portion of my order was enroute. It would be enough to manage an edition, so I drew up my block and organized my tools....

And the paper arrived damaged.

Sigh.

Luckily I had placed a second order from a different supplier when the first order went AWOL, so the new delay was only another two days... but GEEZ.

Step 1: Yippee! Mysterious new lino finally underway.

The first step was a nice blended roll, blue to peach-ish with an interesting third color where they came together. This block is 12 x 18 and my widest roller is only 8 inches, but I didn't require peach all the way to the bottom of the image so I let the rollout fade away along the edge.

Step 2. That's rather obnoxious, isn't it?

Second step was... well, you can see what it was. Orange and obnoxious. Rather frightening, actually. There isn't a huge amount of this color that will show after the next step, but it's enough to make me nervous about the intensity. I want intense, but will this be too much?

The third step involved a solid but very transparent blue rolled over the entire block.

Step 3. Dare I say it? A sigh of relief after the next color was pulled.

Oh, WHEW! I think that's going to work just fine.

And yes, you are correct. This is a landscape! Not. One. Bird. In fact, it is mostly sky. I don't believe I have ever done a piece with this much sky... and I'm certain I've never tried a sunset before. I'm excited about what's happening on the left side of the image in particular... I hope I can hold it together until the finish.