Linocut in Progress: An early snow.... at least on paper

 Alrighty, then! Things have been happening in the studio! It's definitely autumn.... my favorite season of the year, and one in which I find it much easier to get things done. Summer is way too hot and humid... my brain and the paper both turn to mush. 

Of course it's getting cool enough now that lino is getting a bit trickier to carve. But never fear! A heating pad set on low underneath my carving surface will overcome that excuse-in-waiting. 

I've got a solo exhibition coming up back in Colorado at the end of this month, and I wanted to get "just one more" new little piece together for it. An 8 x 10 snow scene seemed like just the thing. 

I jumped into it so fast that I just plain forgot to take any photos of the early ink rollups, but they were pretty straightforward, so I think you can follow along just fine!

Step 1: A light blue, top to bottom. Easy peasy.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 1 printed

Nothing much to see here.... let's carry on with Step 2. This one got a little fancier, but only a little. I printed a blended roll that went from gray at the top of the image to blue at the bottom. Like this:

Step 2 printed

And then, just for good measure, I did it again.

Step 3 printed

One of the things I enjoy about making snow scenes is that they resolve into something interesting fairly quickly. I mean.. honestly... there was a time when I would have just thrown one dark value on to this and called it a day. But those days? Long gone, my friends. I can't help myself.

By Step 4 I remembered that I should be taking photos of the ink rollup, especially since I decided to do something a bit funky. I could have removed all of the material in the snowy foreground, and indeed that was the original plan. But I decided I wanted just one more bit of subtle contrast in the very bottom of the image... and of course it was time to tackle the background trees. So... I took all the lino out of the middle and inked it like this:

Step 4 rollup

Tricky, eh? That's another blue along the bottom, but then a light-to-mid-green blend in the top that went from one side of the image to the other. 

Step 4 printed

It all looks a bit clunky now, but trust me! I have a cunning plan. Sort of. I'm going to try to suggest a bit of a sunny patch in the upper right. Stay tuned to see if I manage to pull it off.