Fieldwork Friday: From the archives

Thirty-six hours. Maybe less. In just a day and a half I expect to be settling down finally into one location and happily living with my work again. I have big plans for Sunday morning that involve ink and pajamas. Which, now that I think of it, probably sounds a wee bit strange. But hopefully long-time readers will be able to explain it to newcomers in a way that doesn't make me sound too eccentric.

ANYWAY. Since I don't have new lino work to share (although I do have a block all drawn up and ready to go!) I thought I'd get Mr. Peabody to fire up the Wayback Machine and see what we could see.

So here's an old sketchbook scan dated 2003. This is a fabulous ponderosa pine living and growing in Chubb Park, a lovely area at the eastern edge of our small county. At least I presume it's still living and growing there ten-plus years later. I need to go look for it again.

I dubbed this "the donut tree," for obvious reasons. Its mysterious growth pattern seems a fitting metaphor for my own journey of the past several months. Got a little twisted around, but now it's onward and upward again!

Fieldwork Friday: Giant Hump-headed Lizard

I mean, really. Why WOULDN'T you want to draw a beast with a name like Giant Hump-headed Lizard? (Although sources other than the zoo call this "angle head lizard," which is equally amusing.) This one was a willing zoo model. I love how it rests with its hind legs straight out behind it. And those ridiculous toes! I do wish I'd had color with me this day because they're really very lovely in blues and greens.

Moving madness continues. Household is more or less settled... just trying to wrangle a team to schlep the studio now. Hopefully next week!

Linocut in Progress: Or perhaps we should say FINISHED!

I was hopeful that Step 9 would be final pass for the cormorant lino, but hey. This is me we're talking about.

Cormorant linocut: Step 9

 I liked it, but felt that the sense of depth could get one more boost if I applied an additional dark to the right side of the image. (Those closest rocks.)

Last color inked.

So along came Step 10, a transparent black... just enough to goose those forward rocks into a bit more detail and bring them forward.

Cormorant linocut: Step 10

Yep. I think that pushed the birds back a skosh. That last dark looks REALLY dark in the photo, but the ink is wet and shiny and I think the camera just wants that contrast. Which suggests that getting a good shot of this piece is going to be challenging. We'll see once it's dry.

I'm considering "Telling Fish Tales" for the title... because every time I look at the interaction between the birds I can imagine the center fellow describing the one that got away. ("It was THIS big!")

I have my own story to tell with arms spread wide... mostly to accommodate the schlepping of boxes. After far too many months in limbo I finally found a place to live here in Salida... and I've spent most of this past week moving. Again. (Essentially the fourth move since October.)

Unfortunately the expense of the new space means I'll have to give up my lovely studio here and move back into 80 fewer square feet. Ooph. Gonna be tight. But I'll be happy to be all under one roof again and able to live with work in progress. Literally. It will also feel good to be unloading more extraneous stuff. I did a big purge before the first move, but since it looks like it won't have been quite big enough I can look forward to running a little leaner yet.

It will be a couple of weeks before I'm completely resettled, but knowing that the end of limbo is near helps a lot!

And never fear! I already know what the next lino will be... hoping to get it drawn up this week when I can't stand to look at another box.

Linocut in Progress: Cormorants nearing completion. Maybe.

After all that fussing around looking for the right rusty color I thought gray would be a piece of cake. Or at least a piece of soft lino. Wrong-o.

It's a nice-looking gray. Transparent. Not too blue, not too brown.

Looks nice rolled up on the block.

Assorted gray adjustments

Eek. Too green on the print! Adjust. Eek! Too light. Adjust. Eek! Too dark.

Cormorant linocut: Step 8

Finally, as Goldilocks would say. Just right.

Linocut in Progress: Emerging from the fog

I just realized that the title of this post could be applied both to this linocut-in-progress and to life in general right now. In either case, I think it's a good thing.

After the printing of the first "rock weed ochre" layer I wanted to add some depth and texture to keep it from appearing as a flat shape. Enter all the "noodly" carving of the previous post.

Cormorant linocut: Step 6

A second ochre layer definitely brought some subtle texture and interest into the scene. And now for a little drama.

Cormorant linocut: Step 7

It took a surprising amount of time to hit this color just right. Most of it will be covered up by two more gray layers, and I struggled to find a rusty color that wasn't too orange when it went down over the ochre layers. It seems a little dark here, but some of that is a function of the photo. I hope the rest will resolve with the next colors.

So now it's back to "noodly" carving and then a gray that will hopefully tie everything back together again. I'd like to print tomorrow, but if this doesn't dry enough overnight it will have to wait until Sunday. In the meantime I'm going to mount up another large-ish (12 x 18 inches) block like this one and start drawing up another print! Deadlines are looming!

Linocut in Progress: Noodly bits

Cormorant linocut: Step 5

The tide is low in the Gulf of Maine and our trio of cormorants is perched above the splash zone... soooooo.... the next color down is rockweed ochre. This required a bit more muscle than expected as the print was probably bordering on too wet. But I powered on through and they're all hanging tidily on the rack.

Cormorant linocut: Noodly little carving

Should be plenty of time for drying now... look at all the noodly bits of carving I have to do! Kind of fun, but it definitely requires a lot of getting up to wander around and look at something else to give my eyes and wrist a break. But never fear. If Annie Bissett can carve the entire text of the first page of Genesis from wood, then surely I can manage a bunch of weedy little dots in lino.

I do, however, think I require a cookie before I can go on today. Since there are none in the studio... it's time to take a walk!

Linocut in Progress: No more mystery- Mostly

I admit it, I got a good chuckle out of responses to my linocut doggerel. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it) the poetry muse has gone on walkabout today, so it's back to pointing out the obvious for me.

Step 2: A pale blue streak

Oh wait. Ha! The second step, post-rectangle, was NOT obvious. In fact it was barely discernable. In this shot of the left-hand side of the image you might barely be able to pick out a pale blue streak just above center. The entire image looks blotchy, but it's really not. I think it's a function of dodgy lighting and dodgier photography. But that was it, Step 2. I thought about not putting this step in at all, but what the heck. Can't hurt.

And now the third step. It's rather disappointing that so much is revealed at this point... you know how much I enjoy teasing you... but a second, warmer gray was appropriate to every aspect of the block, so on it went.

I hope that my shape-carving suggests the jizz (GISS) of our subject(s) well enough for some keen birders to name the species. That little chunk of pale, pale blue doesn't seem to be causing any problems and will hopefully contribute to the sense of depth I'm aiming for in this image.

Step 3: Bird species ID quiz will now commence.

And okay... I might as well bring you completely up to speed. I took the same gray, added a pinch of brown, and voila! The topmost rocks begin to come into view.

Step 4: Got that species sorted out yet?

The next steps will take me out of the gray realm for a bit, which I'm looking forward to. You can no doubt tell that our avian chums are standing on a big chunk of rock... but if I tell you the tide was low can you guess what color might be next?

Linocut in progress: Ode to a gray rectangle

Oh! Dear rectangle! Gray. Not square.

From here we might go anywhere.

A bird. A plane. A forest green.

A plan most vague, as always seems.

Your paper's curly nature vexes;

One of printmaking's most dread hexes.

The fault I fear is only mine,

For not unrolling sheets in time.

But on we go, down paths unknown.

Excitement, yes, and cheers and moans.

The secret is I've done some more 

than what shows here, but what a bore

to give it all away this date.

Oh, no. I think I'll make you wait.

Rara Avis... the third!

"Rara Avis III," linocut, 4 x 6

You might (or you might not) recall that last fall I was commissioned to create a small linocut as a surprise gift for an unnamed museum's docent program. Now that the surprise has been delivered, I'm happy to share some more information!

Presentation of "Rara Avis" was made in December to the wonderful volunteer docents of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. The Woodson Museum is home to the fantastic and prestigious international exhibition Birds in Art and was the site of my unbelievably rewarding artist-in-residence experience last year. (You remember... the one that involved a steamroller!)

For reasons rather long to describe I ended up creating two slightly different editions for the folks at the Woodson, and for reasons less long to describe I now have a third edition available to the universe at large. "Rara Avis III" was printed on a warm white Fabriano paper in a dark brown ink. This edition is a "bleed print," with the image printed to all four edges of a 4" x 6" sheet. And it went up on my Etsy store, Rio Salida Art, this morning.

I was happy to be asked to create this image as a thank you for the valuable service of the museum's docents...and since I'm also happy to celebrate the readers of Brush and Baren, how about this: From now until February 16th you can use the code BRUSHBAREN20 at Rio Salida Art to take 20% off your minimum $20 purchase. Thank you all for reading, commenting, sharing, and laughing with me here! I appreciate you!

UPDATE: Apparently dopy me only listed one of the edition in my Etsy store, and it already found a new home. If you're one of the folks who went looking for it and were confused when it wasn't there... my bad. But it's fixed now!

Linocut in Progress: Finishing the Guillemot

Guillemot linocut: Step 10

So here we are at the end of this image... and I have mixed feelings about its success. I think it's safe to say that most artists will tell you there are always things they would like to have done differently in a piece, so this should come as no surprise.

My goal was to express the striking contrast of a black bird in bright sunlight. I think the impression works better from a distance so go ahead and get up from your desk now and stand back. You need to get out of that chair for a bit anyway.

The funny thing is that when the image is viewed from a distance the light along the top of the head and bill look a bit clunky. The values run together and there appears to be a light "outline" around the bill.

So what to do? The advantage to the Almighty Photoshop is that I can mess around a bit and see if there might be a simple way to improve this with a little spot inking. It's not a horrible problem, I don't think, but it's worth exploring.

In the meantime, I'm going to turn my attention to a large(r) piece. The drawing of it is turning out to be more complex than I expected, but I'm feeling that twitchy excited feeling that comes with an idea that I'm anxious to tackle. I want to get that first ink color down NOW!

Have a great weekend, everyone... press on!

Linocut in progress: Not quite finished

Guillemot linocut: Step 9

Well, it appears we're going to need one more step on this guillemot linocut, so I won't be able to say I kept it to single digit passes this time. I did try a darker color at this point and it was just too drastic.

So the "real" last step to come will put darkest bits into the bird. A few dark spots will still be in the background, I think, but I don't want them to flatten everything out by being the same value as the bird's head. If the first print doesn't look right then I I'll take ALL the material out of the background and it will stay as it appears now. But you never know.

I printed this color two days ago and hoped to be able to print the last color today, but the ink is still a little too tacky. Maybe tomorrow afternoon or Saturday I'll be able to wrap this one up.

In the meantime, I've started drawing up a larger piece, 12" x 18." The color palette is very subdued, so I'm hoping that THIS one will stay under 10 passes.