Linocut in Progress: When "simple" things go cattywampus

 Cattywampus, in case you didn't know, is a technical printmaking term. It can be used to refer to registration problems, but in my studio it's just a catch-all phrase for the entire middle section of most image creation. As in, "now it all goes cattywampus."

Case in point:

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 8 rollup

In my previous post I had the audacity to suggest that I had a sort of plan (shocking!) for these tree trunks... that rolling some white ink over the top of existing color could suggest reflected light. We'll see now, won't we? 

You might note that it's not strictly white that's rolled up here... it's white with a skosh (another technical printmaking term) of purple in it. Because: complimentary color theory. Also, the color isn't rolled everywhere, as this white-over-color business is all about the tree trunks.

Step 8 printed

Hm. Sort of. It's not really the effect I am going for yet, but never fear! I honestly didn't expect it to be quite right yet. I just wanted to prevent everything from going too much darker at this point. 

So now... what's next?

Step 9 rollup

Wait, what? Yep. It's official. Sherrie has lost her marbles here. I'm sure there was some sort of logical reason for me to jump back in to this rather alarming color.... but at the moment what I was thinking eludes me. 

Step 9 rollup

Ha! Just kidding. I knew it all along. Look at that lovely, toned-down-but-too-dark, reflective-looking color in the main tree trunks. Don't mind that bright blue in the branches. I'll do... something.... about it. Later. 

Step 10 rollup

How about another layer of almost-white?

Step 10 printed

Oh, ye of little faith! (Why yes, I am looking at myself, too!) We can still pull this off, yes? 

Let's do a lot of carving in the meantime, and then start detailing these trunks....

Step 11 rollup

At this point I apparently lost track of a step, at least where photography was concerned. Here's Step 11 printed:

Step 11 printed

But there was a Step 12... more trunk/branch details and another pass of brownish gray that I didn't record except for this photo:

Steps 11 and 12 side-by-side

Getting close now, and I was finally starting to feel like I might pull the whole thing off despite myself. There's hardly anything left on the block at this point, so not much more fussing around I could do, anyway!

Step 13 rollup

And the final image, at last! 

"Golden," reduction linocut, 10" x 8"
Edition of 20, ©Sherrie York

Whew! Got there in the end. Another "simple" image of "a few yellows and some blues in the tree trunks" finally finished. (Note: insert eyeroll emoji here.)

So what's next? I think I'm moving on in the seasons and going to tackle a small snow scene. I've got a solo exhibition coming up in October and need to expand my inventory of smaller work, so I'll be sticking with this 8x10 format, or thereabouts!

Linocut in Process: So much yellow!

If you've been following Brush and Baren for any length of time you know how often "simple" images turn into complicated productions in linocut. 

Let's just call that previous sentence Ominous Foreshadowing and move along, shall we?

Color pass #4! This image, if you hadn't already guessed, is of backlit, glowy aspen trees. Lots of light above and a bit of shadow below. Easy enough to suggest with a blended roll of a sort of pumpkiny yellow to a burnt-sweet-potato orange.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 4 rollup

As usual, the color seemed quite dark on the block, but printed over lighter, brighter yellows it perked right up.

Step 4 printed

Full disclosure: I'm not sure what I was thinking with this next step. Brighten the upper leaf shapes and darken the shadowy bottom, apparently. 

But, yes. There was some masking involved. Because believe it or not, I sort of have a plan. Well, not a plan, really. But an idea that I hope is going to work. 

The bark of aspen trees is white, but in shadowed light they take on lot of other reflected color. I'm going to try to suggest this by rolling straight white ink over the main tree trunks, but not just yet. And while I want some color under the white, I don't want THIS much color. So... masking.

Step 5 rollup

As expected, the yellow ink didn't do much to change the upper leaves... but you can see it has done a little. and the shadowy lower portion of the image is showing more contrast. 

Step 5 printed

But not quite enough! After more carving I again rolled some darker brown in the lower portion of the image, blended with a brighter orange in the upper 3/4 of the block. Subtle color shifts for the leaves, more contrast below.

Step 6 rollup

Not a great photo for this step... but you get the idea.  

Step 6 printed

After this step the prints were hanging to dry for a couple of days while I ran around taking care of other tasks. When I came back to them I decided I needed (of course) "just one more dark" in the lower portion of the image.

Step 7 rollup

And more masking....

Step 7 mask

And, finally, printed. 

Step 7 printed

Okay. That seems okay. Really. Okay. Kind of. I think. Time to move on. 

To a layer of... white? If I were a nail biter, I'd start doing so now.

Linocut in Progress: Getting ahead of the season?

When I was in high school (about a million years ago) my first "real" job was working in a retail clothing store. I remember being surprised/not surprised to unpack new inventory and find we were going to start hanging winter coats on the racks in July. It was 95 degrees outside and I was wrestling fleece, down, and (not always fake in those days) fur. 

Which all to say that you might be surprised/not surprised that I have decided to work on a strictly autumn scene for the current linocut in progress. Maine is in the throes of steamy green summer right now, but I am ready to think about my favorite time of the year... with crisper, drier air and a bit more color variety in the trees.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 1 rollup

There's not going to be much in this image that needs to stay the white of the paper, so only a few cuts were required before I was rolling up a yummy blended yellow-to-peach first color pass.

Step 1 printed

And whaddaya know? I'm also working in a vertical format. What? That doesn't seem to happen very often. 

No time to debate the whys and wherefores of verticality. We have lino to carve!

Step 2 rollup

And, wheeeeee! Some brighter yellow and a more intense peachy color. Let's gooooo!

Step 2 printed

Well, would you look at that? I think we can already tell there might be a tree or two (or twenty) in this image. At this point I started to get mildly concerned about a lot of confusing color shapes that need to inhabit the lower third of the image... but I successfully put my imagined fingers in my mental ears (because my real fingers were rolling ink, of course!) and avoided making any decisions. Let's put some more orange on now instead!

Step 3 rollup

Yep. That is definitely orange. Is it too much? Maybe... maybe not.....

Step 3 printed

It definitely seems like a lot of orange, but I refuse to panic just yet. I might do so on the NEXT step, however, since I need to jump in and adjust the color of the tree trunks. These are aspen trees, so their trunks are white. But they are also in the shade, with all of the color coming from backlight... so they are more of a middling purple-gray. 

It's a color that will be tricky to achieve over all these warm tones, but I did NOT want to cut a ridiculously complicated mask to isolate all the trunks. I'm hoping that a long-ago experience in a similar situation will rescue me from myself once again. 

Yep, it's time to cross our fingers and do a little dance for the gods of Opaque White! They'll never let us go back to white-white, but I'm hoping they'll give us a useful base tone from which we can build our new trunk color. 

Stay tuned!

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!

Linocut in Progress: The drama builds!

Okay, maybe not drama. But contrast! We're getting in to a bit more contrast and a lot more of me flying by the seat of my pants. 

I mean, look at this crazy color combo:

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 8

As you can see, I'm trying to keep cooler grays to the outer edges of the image, and to warm up the center.

Step 8 printed

There were two hiccups at this point. 1) I forgot to wipe the color out of the four little roundish shapes that will be periwinkles and 2) while I like the rusty color, when I came back to it the next day it seemed a bit too dark. 

I could maybe not solve both problems with the same step, but I could at least move them back in the right direction. 

Check out this crazy color combo:

Step 9 rollup

The dark looks like black in the photo, but it's more of a transparent dark gray made with sepia, prussian blue, and some transparent base. The peachy color looks good, but it won't print this light over the existing color unless I add some opaque white... and I don't want to do that. Let's see what happens.

Step 9 printed

Okay, that feels better. I think we're getting close now. Two more color passes? I still need to resolve the periwinkles, and I think they will require some spot inking to nudge them where I want them, colorwise. And there's at least one dark to go... probably it will involved some blended color again. I have to think about it.

Unfortunately there will be a bit of a suspenseful delay of progress now, as I am headed out to Massachusetts for a couple of days. A delightful gathering of my wildlife artist colleagues will be taking place at the Museum of American Bird Art on Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone. Back to work on Friday!

Linocut in Progress: In the Weeds. And the Rocks.

Okay! Carrying on with the current linocut in progress. I did promise things would get a bit more visually interesting from this point... let's see if I was right.

As you have probably surmised by now, I have a certain amount of color moving through the center of this image, and less color on the outside edges. I need to keep building tones in all areas of the print, so it's time to employ some blended color.  

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 5 rollup

For this roll-up I deepened the yellow once again with the addition of some more red, and I mixed a lovely warm beige-y color. I got out my trusty old skool Speedball brayers so I could control the application of ink to the block a little better. I used a small 2" roller to apply straight beige to the rocks (you knew that was what they were going to be, right?), and I used a blended roll on the 4" brayer in a tricky way. I ran the color first in one direction, and then turned the block around to run the blended roll in the other direction! This kept the yellow in the middle-most parts of the block and the blended-to-beige bits towards the outer edges. 

Did that make sense? Maybe it will when you see the result. 

Step 5 printed

You might also notice some lighter-colored blobs in the lower part of the image. I used a paper towel to wipe the color out of these few spots before I printed each time. There are some details going in here that could benefit from being less yellow, and it doesn't hurt to minimize ink layers whenever possible. 

Step 6 rollup

And now it's time for a bit more drama. The ink roll up looks ominous on the glass, but I promise it's not so alarming on the print. Remember there's a lot of yellow in the middle already to minimize the depth of the green.

Step 6 printed

Well, okay. Maybe it does seem a little alarming. But we're in the middle stages of this image, and long time readers (and other printmakers) will know that this is when things often get a bit funky. Nothing to do but cross our fingers and hope I got this right. 

As an aside... you might notice the ink coverage looks a bit splotchy in the lower portion of the image. Not to worry... there is a lot more to be done down in this area and the splotchiness will be covered by subsequent colors. 

Like this:

Step 7 rollup

Back to the big roller, because this color pass is just a semi-transparent gray across the entire block. I would have liked to make it even more transparent, but after the complete fiasco of using a lot of transparent base, I am really, REALLY head shy. 

But I think it worked okay....

Step 7 printed

So! What's next? I think it's time to start working more on the areas around the rockweed (yes! this is an image of seaweed). I think the rocks only need one (okay, maybe two) more darks, and those will be most along the edges closest to the rockweed. Next color? Something orangey-browny, I think. We'll see how I feel after the next stage of carving.

Linocut in Progress: Back to Work

Well! Once again, it's been a while since Brush and Baren has seen some love, and I appreciate everyone who stops by to check in with the posts even when they are so erratic. 

Excuses this time? I was away! Far away in another hemisphere! Six weeks of my spring this year was spent having a second autumn... in New Zealand. It was my first visit there– a chance to spend time with a friend I hadn't hugged in 30 years and to run around seeing as much flora and fauna as possible. There's a lot to say about the trip... but for now I'm going to say, "It was amazing," and leave it at that. 

My post-travel re-entry was a bit bumpy, but I'm finding my rhythm again, and happy to be back in the studio.

I'm working in a smaller format than I have for quite some time; this print is just 8x10 inches. The first step was equally modest... just a plain gray rectangle with no material removed from the block.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 1 printed

Although the block is smaller than usual it appears I have not abandoned my tendency to make everything rather complicated. But let's not panic yet. I carved... well, perhaps it's more accurate to say I chipped, some small areas of the block where I wanted the gray to remain. I rolled up a nice, creamy pale ochre for the second color pass.

Step 2 - rollup

Not much to see here... although if you squint you might see the cooler gray bits showing within the warmer tone.

Step 2 - printed

Subtle base established, it was time to get the brightest colors in place. I don't want this bright yellow to interfere with all of the image, so I cut some newsprint masks to contain it in a wobbly shape through the center of the block.

Step 3 rollup and mask

This photo of the print after Step 3 is a bit dark, but you get the idea.

Step 3 printed

I'm guessing the subject matter has been illusive up to this point, but a little sleuthing in the photo below might give you a hint of where we are headed. Or not. 

In the photo these two yellows look quite similar, but I promise they are different. The Step 4 color was started using the leftover ink scraps from Step 3, but I warmed and deepened it with the addition of some red (you can see the little blob of it in the photo). 

Step 4 rollup and mask

I used the same mask shapes to contain this yellow, too. (Again with the questionable photography! I've been printing and photographing at night... that's my excuse.)

Step 4 printed

Not much to show for four color passes, but things are going to get a bit more dramatic very soon! Stay tuned.