Mouse's Best Friend - 15x15" Reduction Linocut

"Mouse's Best Friend" - 2024

My artwork output has been severely reduced over these last couple years due to work and life, but each year I manage to work on a couple pieces  Sometimes they work out and I've had to scrap one or two pieces each of the last 2 years so...sometimes they don't work out.

Here is this years piece.  It is actually a companion piece to my "Pluto's Toy" from 2020.  At Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida there is a store located on the left hand side of the park right after you enter called Pluto's Toy Palace.  My previous work included the Pluto's Toy part of that sign and this one is a large Pluto neon sign that sits on top of the building.

This piece is also a restart of a previous piece that....didn't work out.  Previously, I got excited after printing the second color and immediately started carving.  The problem I encountered was that I had carved out not only Pluto's yellow fur, but also his tongue and collar.  I really wanted to do this piece though so I had to restart from scratch.

 

Here are the first four stages to the linocut.  I always start our working lightest to darkest and you also have to take into account the transparency of inks as you go darker.  In some cases a layer of a very light grey or white may need to printed in order to get a color that you want rather than the color you get when already printed color come through that semi to transparent layer you just printed.

In this instance I printed a light grey later to get a better "tongue pink", "tongue red neon" and "light blue collar".

A couple more layers and at this point the image is actually starting to take shape.  This picture at the top of this post is the final piece and in reality a very dark grey for a shadow across the ears and the sky blue were the last two printed colors.

I was very happy with the outcome of this particular piece of artwork.  If it would be possible...would I change some things??  Absolutely, but that knowledge will need to be applied to future pieces.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #reductionlinocut #printingprocess #disney #waltdisney #pluto #mickeymouse #waltdisneyworld #disneyhollywoodstudios #florida #orlando #artwork

Green Street - 15x29" Reduction Linocut

Green Street - 15x29" - 26 color reduction linocut - Edition: 3 (1AP)

Recently I completed this artwork and thankfully got it completed in time for submission into the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

The subject matter is the intersection of Guthrie and Green Street.  I used to live a couple houses down from the intersection and this was the view from my front porch.  The sunshine on the row of houses always seemed to stand out to me probably because of the different colors of the houses and the shadows.

I previously attempted this piece as an 8x10" reduction, but due to the size I had a difficult time getting the amount of detail I wanted.

This is the previous version I attempted and failed at.  It was my first attempt at houses and overall it's not actually all that bad, but I also had a secondary issue that as I was printing and cleaning the lino block off....the drawing faded to a point that I actually could not continue.

Below are a few of the process photos I took during the making of Green Street.  Usually, I like to print a single color at a time, but due to time constraints I was generally printing between 3 to 5 colors at a time.

 

 

 

I was happy with the outcome of this piece and the final piece itself.  The actual edition itself is out of 3, plus a singular artist proof.  

#art #printmaking #print #linocut #reductionlinocut #lightandshadow #neighborhood #reliefprint #houses #greenstreet #printingprocess

Bass Harbor Lighthouse and a lack of self promotion....

Bass Harbor Lighthouse - 3x3 mini reduction print

I guess moving into and working on a house and working a lot of overtime at work really cuts into my own self-promotion time.  During the past year I've worked more than I ever have as I've attempted to save money for some house projects as well as for paying off my car early.

I've still been busy (when I have the time) working on additional projects.  Over the course of the next month I've decided that I will add these projects and some background on them.

The mini 3x3 inch linocut above is an 8/9 color reduction linocut that I produced for a New York based printshop exhibition.  It is based off of a photo I took of the Bass Harbor Lighthouse while on vacation a couple years back.  It is part of Acadia National Park in the state of Maine (USA).  As of that time, this piece was the most difficult miniature reduction print that I had ever done.  

This is a secondary version of the same image that I am currently working on.  While we were at this lighthouse we watched the sunset over the Atlantic...an odd moment for me as I've only experienced the sun set over the Pacific.  The colors of the skies and glow produced by the setting sun made me want to create a piece that captured that essence as well.  The light orange is actually a color that I'm really unsure of at the moment and I'm considering reprinting it as a darker hue.

#art #printmaking #linocut #print #linoprint #reductionlinocut #lighthouse #BassHarbor #Acadia #NationalPark #Maine #lightandshadow #vacationideas

Finally starting to get back at it!!

Hi everyone!

Been exceptionally quiet here for quite a while, but things at the new house are progressing along....slowly, but art making is about to get put back into gear.  I've set up my press and finally dug out all of my inks and supplies.

A couple days back I began digging through projects that were already started and seeing if there was anything that I could do with them.  Most of these projects haven't been touched in a minimum of 7 months.  Thankfully, in some of the more major project cases I wound up leaving myself hand written notes as to what I was doing when I packed them up.

Other pieces.....not so lucky with.....as is the case with these miniature Maine lighthouse linocuts.

I wound up printing the block onto tracing paper and letting the ink dry.  I wasn't sure what else to do, but this worked nicely and allowed me to see the last areas printed.  =D

Anyhow, it's nice to be back....hopefully you'll be seeing more from me soon.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocesses #backinthesaddle

 

New Horizons and a lull in making artwork.

 I have a new post in the draft stages....I was having issues uploading photos and what fun is a post about art if I cannot show any of it.

Anyhow, I will be trying to finalize that shortly.  My regular job has been absolutely crazy as we are very short handed and I've been working quite a lot.....good for the money, not so good for anything else in life.

After many years of renting though, my wife and I have decided to buy a house.  We are currently a month away from closing and have been spending most of our free time getting rid of stuff and boxing the rest up.  Once we are in our new home I will get back to making artwork...I've already had about 2 months off and I'm probably a good 3 months away from being ready to start up again.

Doug

A new year...a new...wait....old...Cafe

Cafe - 2016

Oh dear....it's been quite a while since my last update.  I will say though that things got very busy over the holiday season and finishing up the Pluto's Toy piece (see last post) really took a lot out of me creatively.  

I have been slowly at work though on a couple projects.  I will try to highlight the stages of production for some of those each week.

My first post I suppose will start with this piece that I attempted back in 2016.  It is part of the sign for the Harley Davidson Las Vegas Cafe which is now closed.  I liked the Cafe part of this sign very much and I was still very "young" when it came to making prints at home rather than in a studio environment.  I was also painfully learning about the issues of different inks.  Three colors in and this 9x12" piece became my first major disaster (if I remember correctly).

So...fast forward 4 years and my desire to complete this piece properly came back to me.  I always had one of the failures hanging on the wall as a reminder of what could've been.

Cafe - 2020/2021

This lino block was started and carved back in late 2020.  The original was 9x12" and I decided to make my life easier with the smaller details by turning this one into a 12x16" piece.  Though I would love to work on smaller pieces, I find that pieces larger than 10x10" are more fun for me.

Part of my issue with the first attempt was that I printed grey first.  I learned very quickly that yellows or variations there of should always be printed first.  This image is a light yellow highlight on some of the neon tubing and then the second color a warm yellow which is the actual coloring of the tubing for this print.

Next step is a light grey for other areas of neon tubing.  This grey actually printed darker than I wanted, but I discovered a way of fixing that issue on another print that I was working on so my next color will actually become the highlighted area of the tubing.

As for now though...this is the current stage of the Cafe.  I'm currently in the process of carving out the neon tubing and will hopefully have an update on this piece in about a week or so.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #cafe #neon #lasvegas #harleydavidson #printingprocess

 

Pluto's Toy - Completed! 32x15" - Reduction Linocut

 

Pluto's Toy - Finished piece with pencil (for scale)

I've been pretty silent lately, but have no fear, I have continued working on my artwork as time has permitted.  My regular day job has been very busy the last couple months partially due to the coronavirus and partly due to lack of co-workers.

I was at least able during this time to finish this large linocut as well as work on some smaller pieces that I'll have to make a post for as well.  I was very exciting to get this piece finally completed as I was able to submit it for consideration for an upcoming exhibition.

 

The last couple colors such as the dark grey and black actually took longer to print than most of the much larger colors.  Some of the areas were difficult to ink up such as the hardware parts that secure the neon.  It would normally take about 5 to 6 minutes for me to simply ink up these tiny little pieces properly.  It's very easy to over ink these areas and I'm usually very good at that, but I really paid very close attention to how much ink was on the brayer.

I have a fair amount of pieces that are currently in progress including three different Maine lighthouses, some more neon and a still life (or two).

I enjoy making these posts and hopefully will have some time open up so that I can do more of them more often.  Have a nice day!

#art, #printmaking, #linocut , #printmakingtechniques, #printingprocess, #plutos, #toy, #disney, #disneyhollywoodstudios, #neon, #wip, #completed