Neon B - Utah Landscape update

Today I printed the next color on my neon "B" reduction linocut.  So far I've had 4 different versions of yellow printed.  Even the shadow on the neon tubing is a very warm yellow....it almost appears orange, but it's not.

Todays color was the shadow thrown by the neon tubing on the light yellow "B" lettering on the sign itself.  Other than those hiccups from the last printing, these prints are registering very well with very, very little deviation.  I'm very happy so far with the progress this print has been making and should be printing the next color very soon.

The color I used for this layer is actually a version of the color I just printed for the Utah landscape that I have in the works.  I found that by adding some Sepia to the yellow I could dull it down into more of a Yellow Ochre styled color (which is what I did on the landscape).  For this particular color, I added less Sepia than I did previously and got a very nice shadow color.

I'm also starting to advance on another 3x3 mini print, but find that I'm not all that fond of the image yet.  It's another landscape that has a lot more detail than the Utah landscape and it's a bit tough to identify areas on a 3x3 inch square so I'm starting to take small personal liberties with the image.

I've also been slowly carving away the Utah landscape lino.  Below is my current progress.  I'm really hoping that this works out.  I've seen so many fantastic linocuts of landscapes with grasses in them that I really, really want this to turn out.  I will say that if it doesn't then at least I've gained the "what-not-to-do" experience.  This one is almost complete and printing should begin once I get some free time, but with the American July 4th holiday around the corner - my work should be nice and busy.

Until next time!  Have a nice day/night.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #landscape #neon #linoprint #reliefprint #intaglio #B #yellow #carving #printing #printingprocesses #fineartprints

Got some updates to share!

Hello everyone!  These updates are becoming tougher and tougher as my regular jobs summer kicks in.  We are generally much busier in the summer months and though I'm still managing to get some work done, getting these updates out is a bit tougher.  Perhaps I'll attempt at smaller updates about individual projects.

To start off though, this past week I had the wonderful experience of selling my first "Diner" print to a dear college friend of mine.  I haven't seen him in quite a few years, but he had expressed interest in possibly buying one of the prints.  We met up for lunch and I must say that I had a wonderful time playing catch up with him.  We were both Art Education students and had a good many classes together and roomed together during a pre-student teaching experience in Philadelphia.  Even though a good bit of time has passed (almost 10 years out of college) and I had concerns that I wouldn't know what to talk about, I truly had a fantastic time meeting with him.  I am very proud that my Diner print has now found a home with him and hope to keep more in touch with him as the years go by.

 

I've also been spending some time working on the neon "B" project.  This past Saturday I printed the bright yellow of the neon tubing and like almost everytime I print in yellow...I had a problem.  The image on the bottom right above shows nice ink ridges that were formed when I ran the print through the press and pulled the paper off.  I've experienced this type of ink problem before with my failed Cafe print (which coincidentally used this same yellow ink).  I added some tack reducer to loosen up the ink and reduced the pressure on the press some more and still continued getting this issue.

I wound up scrapping an entire pile of ink and restarting from scratch.  I usually gather a large pile of ink and then break it down into what I need since I try to work with multiple prints starting with a same base color at the moment.  This time around I reduced the pressure of the press, lightened up the amount of ink I was putting on the lino and did a little bit of hand burnishing.

Thankfully that worked out for me and the bottom left image is the current status of that print.  I have already carved away the neon tubing and before starting this post, began the process of going over the lino block to make sure I didn't miss anything that needed carved.

I've also been spending some time on my Utah landscape.  Using that same yellow as with the "B", I added some Sepia to darken it up a bit to create a darker grass color.  I wanted a Yellow Ochre style of color and managed something that was a little darker, but I felt that it was perfectly fine for what I was doing.

I don't feel that there is much exciting happening with this particular print quite yet, but within the next color of two things should really start to take shape.

I'll do my best to work on smaller updates to keep anyone reading this a little appraised of the situation of my work.  Thanks for reading.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #linoprint #printingprocesses #yellow #neon #sign #B #reliefink #reliefprint #Utah #grass 

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