Linocut in Progress: Here we goooooooooo!

Although I hesitate to write these words "out loud," I think I have finally finished the last tweaks to the World Migratory Bird Day poster and t-shirt designs. Whew. Since the completion of the previous linocut (now titled "A Tern of the Tide") I also took a little time to carve and print a logo for my Learn Linocut online course that is still in development. (More about this later.)

But February is supposed to be my prime studio time, so I need to step away from all these other projects and get some linocutting done! 

It took a while for me to sift through several ideas and settle on a new composition. I'm going for something long and lean this time– 8" x 24." Fingers crossed that it turns out to be as interesting as I imagine it could be....

First stage carved and ready to print.

The subject matter is familiar... some birds and some water... but I'm trying for a different quality of water than I've attempted before, so I'm a little nervous about it. After a fair bit of carving I printed the first color, a transparent gray.

Oh, this long format is going to be hard to see... this image is slightly embiggenable with a click.

For a first color pass this gray seems a bit too dark, but I so often err on the side of too light that I decided to take a deep breath and go with it. Ultimately this image will have some very dark areas, and I'm counting on them to make this contrast seem less extreme.

Printing day for color pass #2 was gray and rainy. One might have hoped such a day would inspire immediate color mixing results when the desired ink color was a greenish-gray, but nope. It took me more than an hour to get the color and value the way I wanted it.

Color, color, who's got the color? Not me, not yet.

I planned to run a blended roll the entire length of the image, and luckily the other color was a straightforward transparent blue. Well, sort of straightforward. It still took me more than the usual amount of time to get the transparency level correct.

Some days you get the ink, and some days the ink gets you.

Finally rolling out some ink!

But I did get there eventually, and printing moved along relatively smoothly.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 2 printed. Yep, you can embiggen it.

I think it's going okay so far, but it's early days. All this foreground white and gray is hopefully going to provide a good feeling of churning, foamy water close to the shore. That's the goal, anyway. I can't cross my fingers because that will make it impossible to carve the next stage, so you'll have to do the finger-crossing for me. Thanks in advance for your effort. I appreciate it!

Back to the carving table....

World Migratory Bird Day: The film!

Well... not film, really. And I guarantee it's not Oscar-winning material. But I put together a little 4-minute video about my linocut process for the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) poster. Basically I propped up my phone, shot some footage, and taught myself how to use iMovie. (Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials!) Considering I put it all together in less than a day, I think it turned out okay!

Actually... working on it seemed to awaken some latent film-making-wannabe gene... but who has time to start a whole new career right now? I'll leave it to the experts, but I hope you enjoy this just the same.

World Migratory Bird Day 2020!

Embiggenable with a click!

At long last we are settled on a poster design for this year's World Migratory Bird Day! Twelve linocut birds connect conservation efforts across the world, and hopefully bring smiles to bird-lovers along the way.

I'm honored and excited to be part of this year's global conservation education campaign. While the "official" date will be celebrated in the Americas on May 9, there are hundreds of events taking place throughout the year. For the poster design I created twelve different linocut birds-- species of focus for this year's theme. The birds were printed in black on watercolor paper and then hand-painted. (I also painted the map!) Watch for a video about this later this week!

In addition to the poster there will be t-shirts, stickers, buttons, temporary tattoos.... the works! Items will be available through the WMBD shop.... I'm guessing maybe late February. (Posters go to print early in the month.) The website also provides lots of resources for event organizers, so if you'd like to celebrate in your own neighborhood, the folks at WMBD can help you out!

Linocut in Progress: Finishing the tern

Drying rack full of prints, turbo edition

It's a snowy day here on the coast of Maine, but I'm cozy and content in my little house... especially with a drying rack full of linos pulled into the sitting room so they can enjoy the boost of some warm, dry, wood stove-generated air.

The last steps of the current linocut offered some serious challenges. I was satisfied with the water, but the little bird needed several details that required a delicate touch. It took me all day to make three small changes to an area roughly 1 x 2 inches in size. Here's where things stood with the bird in question after Step 7:

The shaded underside of the bird is almost, but not quite, the correct value. I debated a long time about whether or not I also wanted to warm up this shadow, even though the bird wouldn't necessarily be reflecting warm light in real life. I want the bird to fit into the seascape... not stand out from it... but right now it's fitting in a little too much and is getting lost.

Step 8, masked

Ultimately I did decide to warm it up just a skosh (that's a technical term). I inked bird and reflection, and cut a newsprint mask to protect the rest of the print when it went through the press. Here's a (terrible) photo of the result:

Unfinished tern with light glare and bad color.
Hey... nobody said this was a photography blog.

You can't really tell from this detail photo, but warming up the bird was the right decision. It's standing a little more away from the water without being too contrasty and obnoxious.

I did think the bird's body needed just a little more detail... one more tiny bit of dark in places... but it also needed a black head and red-orange bill and feet. Not too much of any of it... more of a suggestion. And all of these bits are TINY. Ooph.

In the end I decided the best way to tackle the beak and feet was to pochoir (stencil) the red directly onto the prints. I did this, and then immediately rubbed a little piece of newsprint over the stenciled area to strip off any extra ink. This dulled down the red-orange so it was just a suggestion rather than a strong color. Sorry, no intermediate photo here. But trust me, it worked a treat.

With the beak and feet finished I was faced with the conundrum of still needing two additional dark values but not wanting to do two more color passes. Because, really. How ridiculous can you get? Thankfully the lightbulb came on and I realized I could print it all as one dark, and then strip off the color in the bird's body. This would leave the head and the reflection dark and still give me an intermediate tone. So...

Last step! 

Here's the ink roll-up... such tiny shapes! And my masks are getting worn out, too... this one has a tear. It's definitely time to wrap this thing up.

The finished tern! Yippee!

Oh, WHEW! It worked. I left the head and reflection dark, but stripped off the color in the body and underwing with a small piece of newsprint. Just enough of everything..... and if you don't believe me, here's the final print!

Finished reduction linocut, 12" x 12" © Sherrie York

Technically I suppose the final color pass tally was 10... Seven to complete the water and an additional three to finish the bird. It's hard to call those fussy little things color passes, but for the purists keeping score.... well. Okay.

But here it is! The first new linocut of 2020. It still needs a title... something to do with "sparkling," I think, although so far most of my ideas are a bit on the corny side.

So what's next? This week I'm finishing the poster art for World Migratory Bird Day, and continuing work on my online course. Yes, that's still happening! It's just taking longer than expected. And then... hm... I do think I want another bird-and-water adventure.... we'll see where it takes me!

Linocut in Progress: Everything but the bird

It's a good thing I like blue, because there's been a heckuva lot of it going on in the studio for the last week and a half.

I entertained this vague hope that the next color pass on the water would be the final one, but, alas. T'was not so. But it was still satisfying to continue pushing the sense of depth by strengthening the foreground contrast.

It took me a couple of tries to get the dark right, and in the end I had a two-value blue blend across the entire block. Of course this was the one stage at which I forgot to take a photo of the ink rollout, so I can't show it to you. My bad.

Still.... it's looking pretty good, eh?

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 6

I'm rather irrationally happy about all those greeny blues in the background. It's a color palette that's new to me... a sure sign of the influence of my Maine surroundings.  And, hey! Lookie there. Can you finally see that there is, indeed, a bird in this image?

The problem I had at the conclusion of this step is that it was all just TOO blue. Yes, of course it's water and it's blue, but it all seemed a bit bright. One more color pass was in order, and it needed to accomplish the tasks of adding one more bit of oomph to the value contrast in the foreground, and cutting the overall brightness of the entire block.

This was a job for SOOP-er Neutrals.

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 7 rollup

At this point I didn't want to add much contrast to the background, so the upper 2/5 of the block was inked with a pale, transparent gray. The lower 3/5 got a transparent warm browny-black. Nary a blue in sight, because of course the colors already present would influence anything placed over them.... especially since the new inks are as transparent as the previous.

Step 7 printed, just the bird to finish!

Yes. That's it at last! The water is finished. I remain happy with the sparkly, bubbly feel, and the tonal gradation from background to foreground.

But there's still a tricky little bit to finish: the tern. A delicate touch is going to be needed to give it just the right amount of contrast. Too much will make it jump out of the environment, and will run the risk of the bird looking like a cutout. Also, if the bird is as dark as the foreground wave, it could flatten the feeling of depth in the entire image.

I really want to finish this now, but the ink is too wet to risk printing the tiny tern shapes. It's likely to need two days before I can safely tackle it.... ugh. Torment.

But in the meantime I have plenty to keep me occupied. The two biggest priorities are tax deadlines AND reviewing the videos for my online course. Did I mention I have plenty to keep me occupied?

Linocut in Progress: Pressing away the blues

One often hears people describe art-making as a means to express themselves and their emotions. Personally, my process usually is more of an intellectual puzzle... and sometimes a distraction from emotional upheaval. This week brought sad news from back home in Colorado, and it was comforting to focus on the routines of working while I processed the loss of a friend. 

It seemed appropriate that the image was now calling for blues. It took a while to find the right tonal range, as evidenced by the many ink mixes across the top of my work area. Because I am working with so much transparency, all of these colors will be influenced by those already on the print... and none will look like what I've rolled out on the glass. Did I mention the intellectual puzzle aspect of working? What color is on the print already? How do I want it to change in the next color pass? What color do I need to put on top of it to achieve that change? Is that change one of temperature or value or both?

And of course using blended colors multiplies all those questions, since layering blends creates even more color relationships. Wheeee!

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 4 ink rollup. Three blended blues.

But it's fun when the puzzle pieces start to fit together. My goal at this stage was to hold on to those lovely greens at the top and create small halos of lavender around some of the bubbles. (Hopefully this will soften some of those contours.) A three-value blend seemed to be the solution.

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 4 printed

Okay! Good. Mostly. I see now that the lavender color could have been brighter, but I was afraid of going too far and creating something visually jarring. That it ended up a little too subtle... well, that will just have to do. 

Step 5 ink rollup, two blended blues

As much as I loved these soft tones I did need to beef up the value range, so after some more carving I pulled out all the leftover blue inks from the previous printing session and started mixing them together. The goal was to get some good mid-tones and unify the foreground and background, so this time I just mixed two shades of blue and crossed my fingers. 

Step 5 printed

Whew. That worked out okay and it's looking pretty good. I think there's just one more pass to be done in the water, and then a couple of spot inking passes for the bird and voila! We might actually make it to the finish in fewer than 10 steps this time! (But you know better than to hold your breath on that one, don't you?)

Linocut in Progress: In the pink!

Zooming right along... or perhaps, since the current linocut in progress is a seascape, I should say things are splashing right along. Whatever. Progress is being made.

It didn't take too long to get the block ready for the next color pass, as the first gray was really meant to show only as some subtle shadowing in the whitest bits of the wave, and the green is mostly under-color. But I wasn't ready to abandon that green yet, so for the next color pass I created a slightly darker and grayer version of it and blended that into a transparent blue-gray.

Step 2 rollup

Nice, eh? Very cheery colors to be printing in the winter.

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 2

It's all rather satisfying at this point, as it often is when I'm only two steps along. Now I really have to start thinking. Oh, dear.

As I work on this piece I'm interpreting a section of a (typically horrible) photograph. Most of these little white dots are the result of sun glare off the water, and around many of the larger spots in the foreground the camera lens created a sort of lavender aura. Hm. I wonder if I can suggest that in some subtle way....

Time to get out the pink! I rarely use pinks and reds... they just don't come up often in the sorts of images that I find most appealing. But deep in my ink stash I have an old tube of magenta.... let's give that a try. Why magenta? Because the color underneath it is blue, of course! And I am trying to get to lavender.

And oh, right. There's some gray here, too, blended alongside the pink to add another layer of value to everything else in the image.

Step 3 ink rollup. Transparent gray and magenta

Aaaannndddd..... success! I am pleased with the variety of hue and tone in the image so far. It's all rather pastel-y, which is an unusual palette for me, but that will change with the next color pass. For now it's more carving, a little bit of drying time, and a good amount of cogitating on what comes next.

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 3 printed

Linocut in Progress: First of the New Year!

New Year's Eve on the coast of Maine was snowy, rainy, and icy- good weather for spending the day carving a new lino block. The image is one that I had started work on before I left Colorado at the end of 2017, but never got back to after the move. This new version is a little smaller than my first inclination... 12 x 12 inches... with a more intimate view of the water. (Because of course I have to start the year with a bird-and-water piece!)

Linocut in progress, first carving stage

With the intial carving stage complete, I was able to stumble downstairs on the first day of the new year and embark on my inaugural "pajama printing*" session of 2020. I started with a pale transparent "seafoam" green-to-gray blend.

(*What? You don't print in your pajamas? You should try it some time.)

First color pass: pale green to gray transparent blend

Not much of this color will remain in the final image, but hopefully the green will influence the colors that go on top of it in the ways I envision.

Inked block ready to print

This time of year in Maine we have that slanting sort of late afternoon light... pretty much all day. Nice, eh? But I digress...

Step1 printed, reduction linocut.

There are a lot of little tiny white bits in this image, but with the pale color pass it's not easy to sort out what's going on.  That will resolve itself as the piece progresses (at least I hope so), but for now there's not much to see.  Except a lovely drying rack full of fresh, new prints.

New year, new print!

There are a lot of other projects already underway in the new year, but I'm glad I spent the day with this one. Readers, I hope you all enjoyed a fine holiday season and are ready to (ahem) press ahead with joy and enthusiasm. I'm glad you're along for the adventure.

Rainy Days and New Years, or, Let's Go 2020!

Studio window view on a rainy December day

One of the things about life in Maine that still puzzles me is the persistence of rain through the winter months. Back home in the Rockies winter precipitation came in the form of snow... maayybe sleet once in a while, but not rain. Rain was for summer afternoons, if we were lucky.

But here I am on a Friday afternoon at the end of December, watching the rain come down, and it's definitely NOT summer. I've got a fire going in the wood stove, a cup of tea at hand... and the 2020 calendar laid out in front of me. Holy cow, it's already getting full!

2019 has been a year full of making connections and finding my way in a community that is still new to me. I'm thankful for the support and camaraderie of collectors, students, colleagues, and friends across the United States and across the pond, and I hope I'll have the opportunity to spend time with all of you in the new year ahead... at exhibitions, workshops... or the local coffee shop.

My last completed linocut of 2019 was a pair of shirts for my grand-nephews, who will both turn two years old in March. "Let's Go!" seemed to be an appropriate theme for the lives of busy toddlers, but as I carved the lettering I thought perhaps it was also a good attitude to be embraced by their grand-auntie. I didn't make myself a shirt (yet)... but I've already got a photo of one of the little goobers wearing his... and I'm keeping it nearby to inspire me in the year ahead.

2020? Let's Go!

Linocut in Progress: The Semi-secret Project

As I type this we're getting ready for our first significant snowfall of the season here on the coast of Maine and I find I'm actually looking forward to it. I've got hot cocoa in the cupboard and wood piled next to the stove... and plenty to do in both the studio and the office. Staying in and getting work done sounds fabulous to me.

It's not quite time to reveal the ultimate goal of the project I'm working on at the moment, but I think it's okay to show you some work in progress. I've been carving, printing, and painting a dozen individual linocut birds. When finished they'll be part of a larger image with a potentially huge audience, so it's all rather exciting.

I'm printing the birds on Arches 140lb watercolor sheets, and I've found that it works best to use damp paper. That's different from my usual working method, but once I found the right level of dampness and the right press pressure the printing process has been amazingly smooth. Maybe it's the fact that I'm just printing one color that makes it seem so miraculously painless. No 15-color-pass headaches in this job.

Of course I'm on a deadline, so to expedite things I added some cobalt drier to the ink. This is something I typically try to avoid, for a number of reasons. I dislike the smell for one... and if used over multiple color passes I dislike how it changes the sheen of the ink. But what I really hate is that it is toxic stuff, and I have a solvent-free studio. But sometimes you've just gotta do what you've gotta do.

The whole project needs to be done before the end of the month, so there's no time for messing about. Stay tuned for the big reveal and announcement, probably right around Christmas.

The Hundreds for November

Alrighty, then! Whew... I made it to a hundred little sketches for the month of November. This doesn't seem like such a big deal when one does the math: 100 sketches in a month is 3-4 per day. The trick is that if one somehow misses two days, then suddenly there are 10 sketches to do!

The hardest part for me is deciding what to draw. I want these sketches to be fast... responsive... interpretive... not careful pre-linocut drawings or long value studies. To that end I tried to stick to pen; if I used a pencil my inclination to go all crazy with subtle values would lead me down time-consuming paths.

I also want to work from life as much as possible, but it's November (now December). Daylight hours are short (especially up here in the north country) and there's rain and cold (and soon snow) to contend with and I am a wimp. So at the moment this means a lot of drawing indoors... interiors of coffee shops, my house, the laundromat. I did find one nice day to go to the Maine Wildlife Park before they closed for the season, and a couple of nice days for sketching landscapes near home.

To break things up I also worked from movies and a YouTube video described as Cat TV. (Footage of birds coming in and out of a feeder station.) I'd watch for an interesting frame, hit the pause button, and draw as fast as possible. The temptation to slow down and try to get a likeness on movie frames was huge, but I kept reminding myself my goal was to get the idea down quickly and move on.

It was a satisfying adventure, but rut ro! Now it's December. Here we go again!

In the meantime, here's a little flip through the sketchbook... I think I missed turning a couple of pages, but you get the idea. This month I'd like to be more deliberate about overall page composition, so we'll see how that goes. Onward!