Linocut in Progress: Creative cliffs and carving confusion

Nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, although some days it definitely feels like I'm hanging on by my fingernails. It certainly doesn't help that I feel like I'm on a printmaking cliff with the current reduction linocut in progress. I move a little bit forward and then spend a long time pacing back and forth, staring into the abyss.

Which seems a bit dramatic for something that ultimately will be just ink and paper, but, hey. It's where I'm at right now. 

Part of my utterly convoluted path is driven by attempts to accomplish somewhat conflicting tasks with each color pass. I've already mentioned the challenge of horizontal shapes of one color that intersect with vertical shapes of another color. I'm also trying to increase contrast and color in some sections of the block (namely the lower third) while keeping the color and value range quiet in other sections (namely the upper third).... while also keeping it all coherent. I don't want the finished image to look like a parfait of unrelated color bands. 

(sigh) Remember the good ol' days of single color prints?

Linocut in progress: Step 8 rollup

So here we are with the rollup for Step 8, a good example of me getting in the weeds. Literally. 

In the top of the image I want to add another subtle value without adding color. Okay. A transparent gray. But I will ultimately want the bases of those same grasses to have a little more color and contrast to help them settle into the whole image, so I want to keep them in a green range. That's a blend for the larger roller, gray-to-green, which can then be flipped around to cover the middle section.

In the foreground I want a little more contrast and warmer color, so that calls for a more browny-gray rolled across the bottom edge. Separate brayer.

Add of course I'm still masking the birds. 

Step 8 printed

Okay, onward.

At this point I REALLY wanted to get that last dark blue into the water so I could take out all those horizontal shapes in the middle and be done with them. So I decided to just be brave and mix up a dark blue, as well as a darker dull green.

It was a disaster. 

When good color goes bad

I hated everything about this. Nothing to do but clean up everything and start over. Block. Rollers. Ink slab. More than an hour to reset it all.

Step 9 rollup

I decided that I needed to get those green grasses across the center established more before I could move on to the final blue. Ugh. Will this never end?

The warm gray/brown color from my previous attempt was just too dark, so I added more transparency. I also made rich olive-y green that I blended with it on the larger brayer. Rolled across the top, then flipped to roll across the bottom. Plain green on the smaller brayer across the middle.

Step 9 printed

Okay. It's better, color and value-wise. Surely I'm making some progress now, although of course it all still feels too green. 

But look at the block now. It is a confusing mess. How am I going to keep track of what I need to carve away next?

Do you know what I'm supposed to carve out now? Me, neither.

Aha! Have I ever shown you a MAP?

People ask me all the time how I keep track of what I am supposed to be carving, and my answer is usually that I make it up as I go along. (Which is true.) I have a drawing on the block... I look at what I've printed so far... I look at my reference drawings and photos and whatever else I'm using and I make decisions about what to carve away next. 

But every once in a while that seat-of-my-pants method comes back to bite me in... well... the seat of my pants. Or what is IN the seat of my pants. You know what I mean.

It's at times like this that I am super happy to put a little technology to work for me. I take a photo of the print at its current stage. I download it to my computer and flip the photo horizontally so I am looking at the current stage of the print in the orientation of the block. Because, remember– The print itself is a mirror image of what I'm carving on the block.

Making a carving map

My flipped photo is then computer-printed (not printmaker-printed) onto paper. The color doesn't usually match that great, but it doesn't matter. I get out the colored pencils and draw on my printout... and since I'm adding darker marks to the page, these bits that I am drawing indicate the parts of the block that I will KEEP for the next stage of printing. Everything else will get carved away. 

Whew. I hope that makes sense!

On we go. Will I finally get to add some blue in the next color pass? It's a mystery to all of us, quite frankly. A real (ahem)... cliffhanger. Stay tuned.