Linocut in Progress: Where were we?

For reasons unknown, the beginning of Garrison Keillor's weekly "Lake Wobegon" monologue just popped into my head... "It's been a quiet week in my hometown...." 

Perhaps it's precisely because it hasn't been a quiet week here. In fact things are starting to feel... well... sort of... not really normal, but certainly more positive. With the increase in available vaccine and the decrease in virus cases, summer exhibitions and workshops are able to be scheduled with more optimism, and possibilities are appearing on the horizon. (Read: Lots of emails and calls and Zoom meetings to discuss!)

Which is why I've been a bit lax about keeping you up-to date with the current linocut in progress. And yes, progress is being made, although still rather erratically.

But here we are at the rollout for Step 3: 

Step 3 rollout

Oh, look! It's blue. How many times have early print stages been blue? A lot of times. But hey! At least we're not stuck in Fifteen Shades of Gray like we were with the last image. 

Steps 3 and 4, printed

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I am not entirely sure what color was printed for Step 4, since I didn't take a photo of the rollout. Short term memory... it's really a bit hazy these days. I think it was a transparent gray, because I am trying to drag the tree bark back in that direction. Yes... that's a tree snag with a bird perched on top. Does that help you sort out the species yet?

If not, I'm not going to be able to give you much more help on the next step because, again, I apparently didn't take a photo of the rollout... nor did I take a photo of it printed and hanging straight on. I am really falling down on the job here! 

I can tell you that Step 5 was a slightly more opaque, brighter blue, and show you an oblique image of the resulting prints on my drawing table as I was preparing to print Step 6. Hopefully I did a better job of documenting that particular phase, although it happened way yesterday ago and I can't possibly be expected to remember back that far. 

Step 5 printed and having a nice nap on the drawing table.

So, un-informed as you may feel, visually you are more or less caught up. 

Part of the reason for inconsistent recording of the process might be that I have been distracted by technical issues, especially here at Step 5. I don't know if it's the changing weather (we've been warmer and a bit more humid as we finally move more or less into spring), but I've had problems keeping the press pressure consistent. As a result of fiddling around with it at this stage I trashed at least 4 prints... so frustrating! I think I've got things evened out now, but we'll see. This might just end up being "one of those prints."