Linocut in Progress: (Lucky 13th) Final Step

 I am off next week to head up the Arts & Birding session at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine, so I have been feeling the pressure to wrap up the current linocut and get on with workshop prep! 

The 10th color pass was a short and sweet one. There are four little periwinkle snails in this image, and I wanted to lighten their overall tone. This was accomplished with spot inking a semi-transparent layer of a very pale beige-y color. (Sepia plus white.) 

Step 10 - Spot inking and mask

I used a newsprint mask to contain the color even further, and, voila... periwinkles. 

Step 10 - Printed

For Step 11 we were back to a bit of alarming-looking color. 

Step 11 - rollup

I really only wanted a wee bit of that orangey color to get involved, and I did NOT want it in the rocks, so for each run through the press I stopped to wipe the color out of places I didn't want it to go. Tedious, but necessary.

Step 11 - Put the color on, take it back off

Step 11 printed

Okay, getting close now! Maybe just one more dark? How about a transparent sepia with maybe a skosh (technical term) of blue in it?

Step 12 rollup

Step 12 printed

And here's where I paced through the house and gnashed my teeth for a little bit. It could have been finished at this point. It probably was. But I waffled back and forth about putting just a few more darks in the deepest shadows of the rock weed. I already felt like the whole thing was a bit more "contrasty" than I wanted, and another dark would make it even more so. But I also didn't feel like I had quite the value range I wanted overall.

Okay.

One more dark.

Lucky Step 13 rollup

I added a surprising amount of blue to the existing sepia-dominant color. I wanted a little more cool in the shadows... everything is so warm! 

Final color pass. "Rockweed and Periwinkles," reduction linocut, 8x10, edition of 20

I honestly wasn't sure I'd made the right decision when I went to bed that night.... but by light of day I decided it was a good call, and I'm satisfied this piece is complete. 

Now. Will I have time to get another one prepped before I go to camp? Three days to go!