Linocut in Progress: Recovery effort underway!

Alrighty then. Time to try to sort out a solution to my too-dark-too-soon problem with the linocut in progress.

Inking mask cut from acetate.

I wanted to try spot-inking a lighter color in the area of this wildflower's bloom, so the first order of business was to cut a mask. In this case I'm using matte mylar because 1) the clear mylar I usually use has gone on walkabout (read: I don't seem to have put it away where it belongs and I can't find it) and 2) the thinner sheet of acetate that I tried to use as the mask tore the first time I rolled ink across it. Oops.

Ink rolled over the mask.

Here, of course, is the mask with the ink rolled up. The ink is a peachy color with lots of white... opaque enough to cover the darker orange already on the print and to provide a lighter base for subsequent colors.

Ink up with mask removed. Oops. Messy.

Here is the block inked up and mask removed. There's a sort of "ghosty" bit of ink all around the shape, which is from the first failed attempt with the mask that tore. I wiped off the block, but not quite well enough. After I pulled a test print I cleaned the block more thoroughly and started again.

Paintbrush linocut: Step 5

And here's the result. The "ghosty" bits don't bother me much because more color will be going into the background. The overall shape isn't particularly crisp, but that's not a problem, either, because subsequent colors will be applied from carved shapes on the block, not shapes printed through a mask. (Does that make sense?)

Seems like I should be able to go forward from here... as soon as I figure out what the next step will be!