Sunday, May 15, 2016

Linocut in Progress: Daisies in final bloom

Hey look! There's a pile of green ink on the glass! But don't worry, I didn't use any green pigment to make it. It's composed entirely of leftover scraps of the earlier blue and yellow inks. 


For the background I wanted plenty of variety, and to suggest that the upper portion of the image is farther back. The blend appears distinctly blue and green in the rollup, but on the block it was less effective:

"Daisies," reduction linocut, Step 9

I printed it anyway, because although it doesn't show well in the photo, there IS a decent temperature change of cool-to-warm, top to bottom.

But it was definitely time to stop tiptoeing around and get some stronger tones in there. Anyone who follows me on Instagram saw this little tease the other night:


Which resulted in this:

"Daisies," reduction linocut, step 10

Suggestion of leaves, and a more pronounced temperature and value change from top to bottom. Quite satisfying. Sadly this was Step 10, so I didn't quite make the goal of keeping this print to ten or fewer passes, but it's close.

Step 11 was also a blended roll. I intensified the "midnight" blue from the previous pass and blended it to an olive green. The olive green was a result of mixing scraps of previous transparent blues and burnt sienna. Dopey me didn't take a photo so you'll have to take my word that the roll-out was lovely.

"Daisies," reduction linocut, final step (11)

And here it is! All finished. I'm pleased with the composition, and with the range of light and dark values, but what I am most satisfied with is the range of greens created without using one drop of a pre-mixed green ink. Most of the greens were, in fact, created with layers of the same transparent blue. (In this case pthalo blue from my stash of no-longer-manufactured Daniel Smith relief inks.)

So what's next? I want to do one more small flower piece, although I don't have the subject sorted yet. And then I need to get cranking on a slightly larger piece for an upcoming deadline. But FIRST I have to prepare a demo for this:

(click on the image to embiggen it to a readable size).
My demo is scheduled from 2:00-4:00. Come on out if you're in the Loveland area next weekend. Directions to and information about Artworks Loveland are here. The Colorado Governor's Show continues through May 29.

10 comments:

  1. Splendid Sherri..love the background leaves😊

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    1. Thanks, Drusilla! I get really excited about added unexpected shapes in the background as the image gets close to the finish.

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  2. Beautiful! I love the depth you achieved.

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    1. Thanks, Melody! I had a couple of "testers" that were darker in the background, but in the end I liked it better without the super-high contrast. It seemed richer, somehow.

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  3. the 3D effect is wonderful :) 11 is close enough to 10 ;)

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    1. :-) Better than 19, that's for sure! I'm definitely pleased with how the background developed.

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  4. Really love how each layer of color so influences the prior colors. I suspect your watercolor work informs your linocut process (or maybe they inform each other.) Just beautiful. I also agree 11 is terrific.

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    1. I think you're right about each influencing the other. It used to make me crazy when I painted, because I would see all these lovely, subtle things created by others and my paintings always looked like they were done by a printmaker.

      NOW I'm perpetually shaking my head at myself because I'm trying to print like watercolorist... with oil-based inks! :-D

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  5. Have you ever done lupine? After reading about all your color work on these daisies, I'd love to learn how you'd achieve a mix of colors, especially one that includes that cool coral red of my favorite lupine color. I think it's so unique! But maybe that's only a domestic variety? Anyway, I know this is not a democracy, but I'd love to see how you get to a wildflower warm pink.

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  6. This is wonderful and very explanatory. Well done on your patience...it paid off. Now to examine it all without my brain fogging over.....again Bx

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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...