From big to small

 

La Rose Shop (10x20")

Hi everyone!  

Been working on getting some current projects finished up while creating some new ones as well.

I'm very close to finishing up the La Rose Shop that I started...what seems like forever ago.  Wow...I actually looked back through this blogs history and I was using a Sharpie marker to ink over my transferred pencil lines back in January.  I do know that this piece sat on a shelf for quite a while after things started to not work out as I anticipated.

A couple days back I mixed up a batch of dark red to use on both the La Rose Shop and the mini (3x3") Zion landscape (seen later in this post).  I actually used the color I mixed only on the Zion piece and decided to darken it to try and enhance the contrast between the letters on the La Rose Shop and the shadow being cast by the neon tubing and it turned out much better than I anticipated.

Initially, I had the La Rose Shop set for 10 colors, but after printing this very dark maroon I have decided that I like it enough in areas that I've reduced the number of colors to 9 instead.  I was going to print the sky color (light blue) and then use black for the hardware that holds the neon tubing, but this maroon looks very good on that hardware.  Now I only have the sky to print.  Very excited to have this print almost complete....it's been so long.

Zion (3x3") Mini Print

I'm on the 4th color out of 7 for this mini landscape of a picture that I took a couple years back at Zion National Park in Utah.  I was actually not going to add this current red color to this piece, but though that the rock areas in the foreground were pretty close in color and needed something to create some contrast.

This print was initially supposed to be submitted to the Mahattan Graphics Center mini print exhibition that is currently showing, but time just wasn't friendly to me as the deadline arrived for submission.  Perhaps if this print is still around come next year, maybe I'll submit it then.

This is a picture of the 3x3" lino block for the Zion piece.  The registration jig is very crude, but from what I've seen from other artists....this is what works for quite a few.  The carving for this piece is already completed and I'm just waiting on the red to dry up a little so I can print the next color.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #linoprint #reliefprinting #LaRoseShop #Greensburg #PA #Zion #NationalPark #NPS #Utah #printingprocess #darkred

Updates!!

So since my last post I've been working on a number of things including the printing of the next color on the 3x3" Zion Landscape print.  I'm trying to think about what is going to come of this piece next.  Originally planned for 4 to 5 colors, I think I'm now looking more at 6...maybe 7.

There is a tree just offset of center which has both a highlight green and a shadow green.  These 2 colors will also be used in the background as well for tree lines and bushes.  I also need a blue for the sky and I'm kicking around the idea of a shadow color for small areas of the rocks on the bottom half of the print.  I didn't really want to go with 7 colors, but I may just have to see how this works out.

 

Yesterday, I transferred a new version of my Green Street print.  The last one really lost its way when I began the print with a color that was too dark for what I wanted.  The detail of the drawing was also not up the level that I needed and there were a lot of questionable areas where I didn't really know what was happening.

I took the original image and cropped it into a much tighter view.  This image reduced the number of houses and helped to show me details that were difficult to see when the image was not as close.  I finished the tracing of the image I was working last Thursday and did the transfer Saturday.  I also started the tracing of the transfer with Sharpie marker.  I didn't honestly plan on inking the entire piece with the marker, but I guess once I got started I just forgot and wound up finishing the piece.  I am going to be looking at it and trying to refine some of the details before I move ahead to the carving stage.  I also have to cut down the lino that it's on to the 8x10" size.

Finally.....these two pieces that I completed within the last year or so have been accepted into the Southwest Pennsylvania Council for the Arts: 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition.  I'm very excited to once again be accepted into this show.  Last year was my first year to submit and get selected into.  The show includes artists from all over Southwestern Pennsylvania and is probably the largest show that I've ever been accepted into.

I'll be getting these two pieces framed up and ready for the show probably within a week or so.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprinting #lino #linoprint #utah #greenstreet #exhibition #printingprocess