Mini 3x3 Utah landscape

I recently started working on a new small 3x3 print.  I printed the 2nd color the other day and would really like to get the 3rd printed this coming Thursday.

The image is a crop of a photo that I took during a trip to Zion National Park two years ago.  I'm hoping that this will help me develop my skills in areas where I feel I'm not so strong.  I see tons of linocut images from other artists who do landscapes and I'm completely in awe.  I really want to learn this process and though I've tried previously with landscapes....they have pretty much all failed.  

My previous attempt at a landscape from Utah has really hit a snag after a bad selection of color on my part as well as not really understanding how to tackle the issue of grasses.  In my mind, creating the illusion of grass should be very simple, but each attempt that I've tried has ultimately resulted in failure.  I plan on creating a small 3x3 with grass so that I can try to teach myself the process in a more timely manner than larger prints afford me.  Keep in mind that these prints generally take me between 1-3 months until they are complete, so the learning (and sometimes the failures that come with it) take place over a long period of time.  By the time I realize that what I was trying isn't working out, I've probably already invested 3-4 weeks into the print.  That includes development of the image, the transfer to the lino block, the tracing in Sharpie Marker, carving of the block and printing.

I'm constantly trying to learn how to better myself and creating multiple projects at a time that range from being very comfortable to very difficult for me.  The comfortable ones will still offer challenges, but ones that can still be overcome and ultimately end with a nice final product (it always feel good to have a final print in your hands).  The difficult ones obviously are the flip side....they generally cause me great stress and I (probably) 9 times out of 10 come away with nothing, but the actual experience itself and the knowledge that is gained from at least trying.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #linoprint #reductionlinocut #Utah #landscape #printingprocess #zion #nationalpark

I'M BACK!! And I've gotten a little bit done...

So I've been back from vacation for a little under two weeks and was very excited to get back into the groove.  I'm really pushing to get this La Rose Shop piece done.  The image on the left I did the day after I got back from vacation and I just printed the image on the right yesterday.  The colors weren't initially what I was thinking, but they are starting to grow on me slightly.

A part of me really wishes I had just done a flat color on both sides of the sign rather than the bricks, but...it's too late now.  I have a color that will print over a couple of the bricks and then I can print the color for the letters, the sky and the shadow for the neon tubing that is cast onto the letters.

So only 3 colors to go before this piece is finished.

This is the current state of the block as of yesterday while printing.  I have currently carved a good portion of the inked area away.  I did leave a part of the left hand side of the block in place so that it could bump up against my registration setup.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #lino #linoprint #reliefprinting #laroseshop #greensburg #pa #neon #retrosignage #neonsign