Wednesday, June 7, 2017

I've been slightly busy - Longer than normal update post!


Shake Shack - 3x3" - 5 color reduction print

Hello again!  It's been a pretty crazy time at my regular day job and I've been working quite a bit.  I do manage some time each week to work on some of my printmaking and usually it's about 5 hours a week....all at once.

Since my last post I've finished both of my initial mini prints that I've been working on.  The image above (Shake Shack) was the first one to be completed.  I had planned on 5 colors and somehow actually ended with that many.  I have a tendency to add colors to each print and make it harder than it should be.  I'm pretty happy with this little print and think it turned out pretty well.  I really like the shadow along the bottom of the print and think they worked out real well.


M - 3x3" - 6 color reduction print

I also finished up the neon "M" mini print as well.  I was loving this print right until I printed the final color.  The last color was a dark, dark grey which was used for the little elements that hold the neon tubing off the surface of the sign.  In my opinion, it looks sloppy and I know that they've previously given me issues on other prints so I'm going to have to start looking for better ways of indicating those pieces.

The dark, dark grey also very heavily contrasts with the rest of the print which I feel flattens out the image.  It doesn't look awful, but I think I'll be taking another stab at this little print.  I like it, but feel that I can do better.  The shadow red also printed oddly and doesn't have nice sharp edges like the other colors.  I wanted to complete the piece though and so I did.  If I try this print again, it will be the 4th time that I've attempted it.


 

I've also been busy working on the Utah landscape print.  I previously printed the shadow areas of the clouds in a lavendar color and printed a light yellow over top.  The yellow will be areas of grass which I started briefly carving into the block today at work.  Originally I wanted to keep this print to around 6 colors, but starting to think that I'll be printing somewhere closer to 8.


I also printed a white layer over the Green Street print that I started a while back.  I'm only printing 5 of these prints as I'm really unsure as to how they are going to work out.  I have high hopes, but also know that for a first time attempt that things are probably not going to work out as I hope.  Guess we'll see with this guy.

I also like that it's attached to a that piece of book board.  The registration should have no errors, but sheesh....is it hard to carve.  I like to rotate the block all around so that I can get the best possible angle when carving and that board that it's attached to really gets in the way.

Also....


I printed a white layer over the light yellow of the neon B that I've been working on.  Printing the white has done a good job of lightening up the back and should allow for a easy application of Hansa Yellow layer.  I don't recall if I mentioned or not in a previous post, but I accidentally carved away the wrong area of the neon tubing and had to either scrap the project or find a way to fix it.  I chose to fix it and so far it's been working out.

I also think that since I'm not completely fond of how the M worked out with the black that I may carve out the pieces that hold the neon now and allow them to be a color closer to clear than black.

I'm very excited about the progress of this particular print and that I've been able to work around my initial carving error.

I'll be working again this coming Saturday and will probably start work on a couple other projects very soon.  I have some different ideas that I'm interested in trying out.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #neon #prints #workinprogress #printingprocesses #Shakeshack #LasVegas #NV #Nevada #M #YMCA #Pittsburgh #PA #Pennsylvania





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