A couple updates.

 

Hi everyone!  Here are two updates since my last post. 

The Pluto's has gotten it's first green layer and I unfortunately lost a couple on this pass.  The ink coverage was not up to what I wanted and attempted second passes on a couple of the prints and doing so didn't work out for me so well.  That night I gave up and decided to continue the following night.  I wound up adding another sheet of newsprint to the padding that I lay over top of the block and paper to increase the pressure by a small amount.  This worked out well and the rest of the prints worked out very well. 

I still have about 6 colors left for this piece....and I'm partially reconsidering making a large version of this piece (14x28" or 15x30").  I like the idea of it since it's a lot of colors and would look really nice, but would really take me a long time to complete and in order for me to have it finished by next years deadlines I will have to get printing withing the next couple weeks.

I'm probably still going to do it though...I enjoy the pain that those large pieces cause me.  I also recently ordered some new large pieces of linoleum and got a large amount of paper from a closing local art store so everything is in place.  I will just need to finish the drawing for transfer.

The second image is the first two printed layers to the Hot Wheels Lotus mini print that I started a little while back.  I don't honestly have much to say about this piece at the moment as it's still early in it's process.  I do have about 3 colors to go until it's complete....it's basically 4 shades of grey, a black and the yellow.

The weather lately has slowed my printing of these pieces.  I always have a hard time getting the ink to dry quickly during the fall and early spring.  It usually takes 2 or 3 days normally and the Pluto's took almost two weeks to dry and the Lotus was about a week.  Now that the furnace kicks on occasionally though it seems to have kept the air moving and dried the ink faster on each print.

I've started a new set of mini-prints based on a couple of Maine lighthouses that my wife and I visited while on vacation there a little over a month ago.  I'm hoping that they turn out because the visiting of these lighthouses along the coast was an incredible time for me and became one of my favorite parts of the trip.  I'm not an really an ocean person...or a lighthouse person, but a lot of these lighthouses we visited have been portrayed by many of my favorite artists and just being around the lighthouses was incredible.  I'll have updates for these fairly soon and will hopefully get back to more frequent updates.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #printingprocess #neon #car #Pluto #Lotus #HotWheels #Disney

Pluto's Toy Palace test print

 

Pluto's Toy

Mini-ish test print for possible larger piece.

So it's been a while since my last post.  I did take about a month off of printing (again), but before that I was working on this new piece which is based off of a sign from Disney's Hollywood Studios for Pluto's Toy Palace.  I've been wanting to do a larger scale print with a fair amount of colors so while searching through previously taken pics I had taken I ran across pics of this particular sign.

As much as I'd like to just jump this straight into a larger print, I figured that it would be probably in my best interest to just go ahead and see how it would work out on a smaller scale.  I've been working on this piece since my last post and have managed to get about 5 colors in.

  

 

These are the next 4 stages and I've printed through.  I'm currently at an impasse on the next color, but since my reds tend to be fairly opaque it'll probably wind up being green which is the majority of the upper part of the sign.

I'm also in the process of creating a new registration jig for the small Hot Wheels Lotus and should have something printed very soon.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #lino #printingprocess #neon #disneyworld #wdw #hollywoodstudios #pluto #toy #lakebuenavista #florida #fl

Lotus and Spyder linocuts!

Lotus - 2x4" - 5 Color Reduction Linocut

 I've been working on a couple pieces recently and trying my hand once again at a vehicle.  This Lotus and the Spyder cars will be my first vehicles since the Dodge truck that I made a couple years back.

These particular cars are not based off of actual vehicles that I have seen in person, but rather something from my childhood that happened to be made from die-cast metal....that's right....these two pieces are based off of Hot Wheels cars that I went out and purchased just for this reason.  Hot Wheels generally creates a bunch of non-real styles of vehicles so I just focused looking for cars that looked as real as possible.


 

These are some of the many pictures I took of each car.  I tried a bunch of angles and lighting to get exactly the look I wanted.

Spyder - 12x16" - 7 Color Reduction Linocut

This is the other one that I'm currently working on.  I started this one several months back, but due to the complexity and the time that was being taken up by the Racer and Ice Cream linocuts this one got set aside....and then...I forgot about it.

The darkest grey on this image was printed this past week.  The registration is ever so slightly off...and I mean slightly.  It's possible the paper stretched a little due to the humidity because the area in question is only along the edge.  I'm currently in the process of carving this block and making sure that I know exactly what areas of the windshield and interiors areas (seats, etc) are going to be removed before printing the next color.

Anyhow, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up as to what's been happening with my artwork.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #reductionprint #cars #lotus #spyder #hotwheels #printingprocess #diecastcars

Took a little time off, but....

Generation - 3x3" Mini Reduction Linocut

So about a month to a month and a half ago I finished up on this Pepsi mini print.  Since that time I decided to take a little step back and relax a little bit rather than attempting to push my way through some printing...kinda like recharging my batteries.

I've started a new 12x16" piece and I'm working on a 4th Ice Cream linocut as well.  I've also begun the process of creating a new larger scale reduction linocut that will be about the same rough size as the Racer linocut that I finished a couple months back.  The new one will also be around 16x34 inches and the color count will increase from 6 to around 14.  I want to do something large with a lot of colors for no real reason other than to do it.  I dreaded printing on some of those days while working on the Racer, but I guess it didn't take too long for me to get over those feelings.

I was actually going to print last week, but decided that I needed to do a little reorganization of the room that I do my artwork in (it's a spare bedroom).  If you've ever reorganized anything then you know that it usually becomes a much, much larger project than you ever anticipate.  I'm still in the process of finishing it up today.

If things work out, I'm hoping to get that piece started by mid-late fall.  I have my subject matter, but I'm also going to keep my options open because I have a trip coming up to Maine and may see what kind of subject matter/inspiration I come home with from there.

Anyhow, for those that have checked my blog while I was away and didn't see any updates they should start to come a little more frequently now that I'm about to get back into the swing of things. 

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #pepsi #generation #reliefprint #miniprint #breaktime #cleanupnightmare #readytogetbackonthehorse

Ice Cream - 20x16" - 14 Color Reduction Linocut - COMPLETE!! (for now)

Ice Cream - 20x16" - 14 Color Reduction Linocut

This is the linocut that literally wore me out.  After a full year of a start, a failure, start, another failure, a start and finally a finish...I can say that I was really tired of working with this piece.  The same subject for just over a year was a bit difficult to work with from time to time and I'm happy and proud to say that I've finally completed it!!

For those a little late to the history on this piece...this sign used to hang on Disney's California Adventure Catch-A-Flave ice cream shop.  I had been looking to do an ice cream based neon linocut for my wife and had discovered previously that this particular one existed.  We visited Disneyland in September of 2017 and I finally got a picture of the ice cream cone that I wanted to use as subject matter.  Unfortunately for me, though the day was sunny, we were not at the sign during a good time of day.  In my photo, the sun shines directly on the side of the sign and not on either of the two large surfaces.

It took me some working and studying of other similar styled signs to come up with my own version of the shadows.  Most of the shadows were created by just placing my pencil drawing back on top of the lino and off setting it from the design and transferring the areas of the drawing that corresponded to the neon tubing.  It works pretty well for the lower half, but the actual "ice cream on the cone" was a bit more problematic.  I noticed on other images I found online of this sign that the neon up top created completely different looks depending on where and how the sun was hitting the tubes.

I wound up using a combination of my imagination, my transfer process, a 3D model I created of the sign and concepts from other ice cream cone neon images.  

 

Ice Cream final color linoleum block on press and close up of neon/ice cream swirl.

I'm happy that this piece turned out how it did.  I do see little areas that I wish I could fix, but this is normal with practically every piece of artwork I've ever made.  As this piece was for my wife, I did ask her opinion...she was afraid to hurt my feelings since she's quite aware as to how long I've been working with this piece.  To be honest though, it's been a long time since I've gotten offended or hurt by honest criticism.  She gave me hers after I told her to basically just lay it all out there.  It gave me ideas and I'll be revising the color list....and who knows....maybe in the future this piece will show back up on this blog as a new piece..... =)

Always strive for perfection if it's what you want.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #reliefprint #icecream #neon #disney #californiaadventure #skyblue #catchaflave #lightandshadow #castshadow

Racer - 16x34" - 7 Color Reduction Linocut - COMPLETE!!

Racer - 16x34" - 7 Color Reduction Linocut

Hi again everyone!!  As usual my plans for frequent updates have backfired on me, BUT since my last update I have been extremely busy with trying to finish up my two larger pieces of work.

First up is the Racer print.  I printed black about a month ago and it was the final touch to this piece.  The black ink just recently completely dried and I just need to sit down and finalize the piece with the edition numbering, title and my signature.

I can definitely say that I'm very happy with this pieces end result.  The use of less colors is something I wish I could work with more, but I've said that to myself before.  This particular piece had seven colors...two greys, two reds, two blues and a black. 

I have a feeling that I won't be doing any artwork this large again until I get a much larger brayer(roller).  I kept track of my time I spent on this piece and after it was all tallied up I would up spending more than 43 hours on this piece.  Most of those 43 hours were spent with the actual printing while carving and drawing took up about 10 hours or so of the time.

Final state of the linoleum block inked up in black.

It did seem to take forever to carve that sky away.  The largest gouge I have in about 1/4 inch wide...so think about that.  16x34 inches with the largest area being carved away 1/4 inch at a time.  Eeesh.

Final state of linoleum block on press bed.

If you compare this image to the one just above you'll notice that this one is a bit less clean.  During the inking of the block, the brayer (roller) has a tendency to make contact with the already carved surface of the linoleum block.  This contact leaves areas of ink that I'm not interested in having show up on my final print.  In order to prevent these accidental areas of ink from printing, I must go in after each inking with an old rag and wipe away any ink from the already carved away areas.  This process becomes more lengthy as the printing advances.  It becomes increasingly more difficult to see the ink marks as I continually wipe and smear previous inked areas away.

The "Racer" linocut was created with a couple different exhibitions in mind and has so far been submitted to one.  The other two happen later in the year and I'm excited to see if this piece will get accepted.

I also have an update on the Ice Cream linocut, but it is currently very late and I do need to get some sleep.  I have a fairly big day of printing ahead tomorrow, but I will try to make an update about the ice cream.  See you all soon!!

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #reductionprint #blackink #cranfieldreliefink #racer #rollercoaster #kennywood #pittsburgh #pa #amusementpark

Ice Cream - 20x16" - 12 Color Reduction Linocut

 

Ice Cream - 20x16"

I've really slacked off on showing progress for this piece lately.  Since my last post I've printed 3 variations on a magenta/pink and a grey.  It's kinda crazy how the third time is a charm.  Usually failing twice at something really causes some form of hesitation on attempting the same subject matter for the third time.  Failure is generally a fantastic learning tool though.  It may not be what you want to have happen, but it teaches so much more than constant success.

I was originally down to two remaining colors, but decided to mix a color just to see how the next grey would react to some added blue.  When I finally finished mixing up a small batch of this cool grey color I decided that it would make a very nice cast shadow color.  I didn't really want to push the color count to 12, but sometimes you just have to do what you think will make your art better....sometimes less is better...sometimes more is.

I'm currently in the process of carving away the neon tubing and leaving the cast shadow area on the lettering, a shadow for the neon tubing and finally the sky to print.  Very excited to see this piece finally get completed....I've only been attempting this piece for over a year now.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #neon #icecream #lightandshadow #disneyland #californiaadventure #catchaflav #california #anaheim

Two new colors for the Racer!

Racer - 16x34" - 7 Color Reduction Linocut

Hi everyone!!  Been a bit busy lately....life seems to be getting more and more in the way of this blog, but I'm still trying to push ahead.  The Racer rollercoaster sign is almost finished!!  One color to go.  The past two weekends I've been busy printing the sky and the very dark blue area of the hanging flag banners along the bottom.

Each photo was taken at a different time of day so I apologize about the difference in colors on the two.  The sky is closer to that in the top picture than that very bright blue in the bottom pic.  I'm pretty excited about how this piece has turned out.  Registration has been very good and other than a little issue getting the blue to print over the shadow red in a solid tone...things have gone well.

When I first printed the sky color the red underneath really wanted to show through.  So I reprinted the first ones sky a second time and it still turned out a little questionable, but passable.  When I printed my second piece the same thing happened so I doubled up printing the blue.  I still wasn't 100% happy with it....so I tried a third time.  This was not a great idea and the outcome was pretty hideous.  I blotted both the first and second attempts heavily with newsprint to remove as much ink as possible.  The remaining pieces to the edition were all printed with a single blue layer.

I decided that being patient and trying again once the single layer of blue dried might work better for me.  Thankfully I managed to talk myself into that patience because when I printed the blue again later that week things turned out really, really nice.

 

Here is the edition drying after the second weeks printing of the blue and below is the block as I was carving away the sky.  FYI....that carving tool is somewhere around 1/4 inch wide....that sky took forever to carve.  Only black remains though!!

That's all for now!  I have to get my lunch ready for work and get ready for bed.  The Ice Cream reduction linocut has also been moving along nicely and I will try to create a post about it tomorrow night!

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #Racer #rollercoaster #Kennywood #Pittsburgh #PA #412 #amusementpark

This piece is just Racing along....

Racer - 16x34" - 7 color Reduction Linocut

(Color 3 - Red)

So since my last entry I've managed to get a good bit done on this piece.  The only major issue I'm experiencing with this piece is the amount of time that it takes to print each color.  I'm working with a brayer that is only 7 inches wide and only rolls out about 6-7 inches.  On a piece of this size that means it takes what feels like forever to ink the entire surface of the block evenly.

The first light grey layer took me 4.5 hours, the second layer took 4 hours and this layer took another 4.5 hours.  That includes times where I didn't necessarily ink the block evenly and the printed ink came out uneven with areas that didn't print well.  I would then just ink up those specific areas and run it through the press a second time.

(Color 4 - Shadow Red)

I managed to quickly carve the areas for the last color away and printed the fourth color a bit sooner than I probably would have.  I really like how this is turning out so far and I'm down to 3 colors.  I have the sky, a very dark blue on the banner flags and then a final black color.  Much like the other layers, this color took about 4.5 hours to print properly.  I guess that makes 17.5 hours of just printing for this piece.  That doesn't include the carving or drawing time which probably has me well over 23 hours worth of time spent on this piece....with 3 colors still to print.

(Detail shot of the highlighted and shadowed red areas)

(Here's the block on the press bed ready to be printed).

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #racer #rollercoaster #kennywood #pittsburgh #pa #red

Deep Orange Ice Cream and Racer (updates)

 

Ice Cream - 20x16 - Colors 5 & 6

So far this piece is moving along much better than previous attempts.  I've stopped even working on the second attempt for the moment, but I think I will pick that one back up once I get this one finished.

When printing the 5 color which was the shadow on the building I forgot to print all the areas that I was supposed to print.  Luckily, I saved the remaining ink and was able to print the rest a couple days later.  Just this morning I printed a deep yellow (almost orange) as the shadow area that is on the cone itself.  I'm very pleased with it's look so far and the sequence of the yellows was actually one of the things that I learned off of the second attempt.

Registration of the colors has been very good except for one of the prints where it's off just slightly.  As I continue moving forward it shouldn't take long to see if that print will be included in the edition.

Racer - 16x34ish"

Since I wasn't sure of the deadlines for a couple of exhibtions that I usually submit to over the summer I figured that I'd better get the ball rolling on this piece.  I used all of the white ink I had just to print the first layer (light grey) and spent 5.5 hours printing an edition of 11 two Saturdays back.  Printing this piece is exhausting.  I honestly couldn't believe that it had taken me so long just to print 11 pieces.  I actually ran out of ink twice, but wanted to print 11 or 12 of these so I mixed up ink two more times to reach 11 and at that point decided that I was done.  I somehow managed to mix the same color ink 3 times and was disappointed I couldn't try again, but when you run out of ink to mix with....your done.

This is the first light grey layer for the Racer print.  I was very happy with how it turned out and immediately ordered some new ink so that when the time came I'd be able to print again.  Even though I purchased Ternes Burton registration pins and tabs to help with color registration I barely use them, but because of the size of this piece I figured it would be much easier to line up with their assistance.

This past Saturday I printed a darker, shadow grey and I'm very happy with it's outcome as well.  Registration is practically perfect thanks to the registration pins and I just finished carving the block so this piece is ready to print, but I'm going to have to wait until Saturday.  This second layer took an hour less to print so that was a nice surprice.  Only 4.5 hours printing instead of 5.5.  Again though, quite exhausting.  Next color up is a nice bright red which will then be followed up with a darker shadow red.

Can't wait to see how this one progresses.  Going to dive back into my Green Street linocut which I haven't touched in a couple months.  I was not overly happy with the last color I printed so I shelved the project until I felt ready to go back at it.  I guess today will be the day.  Wish me luck.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #icecream #neon #lightandshadow #racer #rollercoaster

Ice Cream, Magic and rollercoasters!!

So since my last update I've been working on getting things rolling on multiple fronts.  This past Saturday I forged ahead with my ice cream reduction linocut by printing a tan-like color for the building.  I didn't expect this color to actually get made if that makes any sense.  I was just hoping for a light orange like color and instead discovered that by mixing white and a "warm" yellow (which is similar to a yellow orange) that I could get a very nice cream color.....not at all what I expected, but very happy that I found this out.

 

The photo on the left shows my mixed color swatches sitting on top of the last printed yellow and the image on the right is the inked up block.  I promised myself that I was not going to partially ink any part of this project, but that didn't work out.  I'm low on white and the store in which I purchase my inks will not have any white back in stock until March.  I honestly don't have the time available to wait until March so I decided to save what I could and mix a smaller amount of this color which only allowed for a partial inking of the lino block.

This is the color proof from the inked bottom half of the linoleum block.  Even though I mixed up a smaller than normal amount of ink I did wind up having some extra at the end...which leads to a new project getting printed!!

Magic - 12x16(ish)

This linocut is based on a sign at Disneyland in California.  I do not yet have a definitive list of colors for this piece, but it's probably going to be high and definitely a pain.  There is a red, yellow, golden yellow,  blue and sky blue for this piece (5) plus a shadow for each (10).  That's does not inlcude the cream area for the "magic" as well as two shadowed areas for it (13) or the grey and dark grey (15).  So perhaps somewhere over 15 colors.  I wish I could pick easier subject matter.

The first color printed is the light tan/cream from the Ice Cream linocut.  This is a detail shot of the inked blocked.  The semi-rounded out areas are the lightbulbs located within the word "Magic".  I'm very hopeful for this piece as I think it will have a nice end result.

After I make my mess printing the cleanup takes considerable time.  I have to clean up the glass desktop surface that I mix and roll the ink out onto, but I also have to clean the roller I use as well as the block.  I spent about 1.5 hours and probably another 30 getting everything properly cleaned up.

One final thing of note is that I've really taken my second large step towards getting the "Racer" rollercoaster signage prepared for printing.  I carved the block a while back and today prepared the press for printing.

Due to the size of the piece I needed to create a new registration system of the block to fit into as well as placing Ternes Burton registration pins at the very top of the print bed.  I can admit that I probably went too big for this piece.  I wanted to push the boundary of my printing ability with the press and I think that even though it can print up to 17x35", that is probably just for a single color print.  I generally prefer 2 inch borders around my image, but there is only about an 1.25" on the top and bottom of the block.

I 'm going to have to get some masking tape to secure the registration tabs are used with the Ternes Burton registration pins and then I'll be able to begin this piece.  I'm very excited to get this thing going.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #reductionprint #neon #singage #printingprocess #printmakingregistration #Disneyland #CaliforniaAdventure #IceCream #MainStreetMagic #Racer #Kennywood #rollercoaster

New Ice Cream updates...I'm going to get this thing done one way or another!

Ice Cream - 20x16" (2nd Attempt)

So it's been a while since my last post and I always mean well and want to update this as much as possible, but with the holidays that just past which includes spending time figuring out gifts, buying gifts, spending time my wife and family, going to work and eeking out time to work on art...it's been difficult for me to get back to update this.

Anyhow, I hope everyones holidays and New Years went well.

Since my last update at the beginning of December, I have continued working on my various Ice Cream prints.  The original attempt that I tried is no longer in production.  The time that I was needing to invest in doing 3 versions of the Ice Cream was turning out to be just too much.  I still wasn't happy with it's progress and finally decided to call it quits on that piece.

The second attempt though is still being moved forward with.  The colors are a little out there, but I'm fairly happy with how it looks so far.  The picture above and the ones below are it's current stage.  I printed the first pink....light reddish color a couple weeks back.  Unfortunately, since I printed that piece I have only found the time to carve the block and not the time to print.  Hopefully I'll be able to move forward with the light grey that is to come next .

 

Here's a quick look at the current progress for the 3rd iteration of the Ice Cream print.

So far I'm two colors in...a very, very light yellow that is almost impossible to discern from the white paper and then a light yellow second layer which I just printed this past Saturday.  I promise to show a little more on my next update (which I will try to publish in the next couple days).

 

Color 2                              Color 1

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #IceCream #neon #sign #Disney #CaliforniaAdventure #yellow #testing #printingprocess