Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Linocut in Progress: Vague beginnings

After several pre-printing hiccups I finally got my new linocut drawn up and on the press this week. It's another largeish piece, 18" x 18," and it's a return to one of my favorite themes: Birds and water.

Not that you can tell yet:

Step 1... can you see it?

If there were a prize for THE Most Boring Photo Ever Posted to a Blog, I bet this would be a top contender. It's a barely-visible square and it's pink.

This was the ink, but it was very transparent. Obviously.

Transparent pink for starters. 

Pink may seem an unlikely choice for water, but it's only appearing in a few spots and its purpose is to cut the brightness of the white paper, not to make the viewer say, "Hey! Look at those pink shapes!"

The second pass was a transparent gray... which you can almost see in this image. (Candidate for Second Most Boring Photo Ever Posted to a Blog.)

Step 2. Still boring.

From here I'll move on to some blues, which hopefully will NOT create a candidate for Third Most Boring Photo Ever Posted to a Blog. But you never know.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for putting up a step by step process again, I do like looking at them and trying to see where you put what. I am new to printmaking, and that wash of pink makes sense, I was wondering about the transparency, How much of a ratio of extender to ink do you use to get it so transparent? Thanks again for the continued sharing of your work and process.

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    1. Hi Drew... In general I would say the ratio is "a lot to a little."

      I go through a LOT of transparent base and very little pigment. Generally I'll put out a blob of transparent base equal to the amount of ink I think I'll need for the run, and add tiny bits of color until I've built up to what I think I want. For something this size (18 x 18 inches x 24 prints) I might only use a 1/2 teaspoon of color in a 1/3 cup of base.

      (Cooking measurements seemed like the best visual, I hope that makes sense.)

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    2. Thanks Sherrie,
      That really helps give me an idea what I need to do for further prints. Thankyou.

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    3. Always happy to help where I can, Drew! Thanks for asking!

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  2. 18 by 18...looks at ruler, that is huge! ood luck with that :D

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    1. 18 x 18 is starting to look like my "comfort zone." I've used that format a lot... the great horned owl and aspen trees that I did last autumn were both that size. I'm still trying to find the right image to bump up to 18 x 24 inches.... ooooh! What is that? About 46 x 60 cm?

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  3. yeah thats about how big it would be in cms :) BIG lol

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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...