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 deadlines, yes... but another equally inflexible deadline that I will tell you about at the end of this post! 

So here we are at what I am calling Step 7, although if you count all the tiny inking stages that happened between Steps 3 and 4 we could also say it's Step 10. Your call.

I decided that even with, and perhaps because of, the blended rolls, the image was looking a bit like it had three distinct lines of background, middle ground, and foreground. Not that that is bad, necessarily, but I wanted to break it up a bit. 

Step 7 rollup

My solution was to create another ochre-y to greeny-gray-y (my color names are so descriptive!) blended roll, but this time I rolled it up on an angle. Corner-to-corner instead of side-to-side. 

Step 7 printed

Yes. Better, I think. One more big roll of color and then the details of the bird and I'm finished, I think! This time I only put blended color in the top third, and the rest of the block was a solid roll. 

Step 8 rollup

Step 8 printed

Okay! I like how this step broke up the larger shapes at the top and bottom of the image, but did so subtly. The whole scene is very busy with lots of movement, so a few places for the viewer to rest their eyes are essential. But to leave the larger shapes flat color was jarring. I felt good about this compromise.

There was a temptation here to squeeze in one more subtle layer in the water, but I resisted the urge and went for the final color on the bird. 

Step 9 rollup

It looks like I rolled up black here, but it really isn't. It's more of that dark licorice green, but it reads as black in the final image. 

And here it is! 

"In the Shallows"
Reduction linocut, edition of 20
© Sherrie York

Whew! I needed to finish this piece because I wanted to submit it to an exhibition jury that is coming up in April. 

April, you say? March isn't over yet... what's the rush? 

Well, there's always drying and photography time to consider, but I have also been acutely aware of this:

Yep. That is my bag with my passport in it. Something exciting begins in the next 48 hours... another inflexible deadline. Stay tuned!