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

 

Bass Harbor Lighthouse - Daytime version - Work in Progress

Bass Harbor Lighthouse - 3x3" mini reduction linocut

Since I really enjoyed my previous "Nubble Lighthouse" mini linocut I decided to make a couple more Maine lighthouses.  That trip for my wife and I was incredibly rewarding in so many ways and the various lighthouses to be found along the coast of Maine was definitely a highlight of the trip.

My second miniature reduction linocut is the Bass Harbor Lighthouse which is located inside of Acadia National Park on Desert Island in Maine.  It sets on top of a rocky coastline overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and there is a short trail that leads down to water below and you can crawl over the rocks to get some very nice shots of the lighthouse from down below.

 

My very first color I mixed was completely wrong for the grasses on the hillside so I wound up just stopping where I was and remixing the ink so that it was a much more pale yellow (you can compare the two colors above in the very first photo).

Someday I will learn to just ink up the entire block when printing....I consistently try to only do part of the block and each time thereafter I find myself regretting doing so.  I had to print the sky on this piece twice to cover up the printed yellow area (grass).  It seems that due to doing so my sky is now a lot darker than I originally wanted, but it also isn't too bad and I am happy with it.

I printed a very light grey for the shadowed end of the lighthouse and for areas of the rocks below.  This is the current state of the print and I'm hoping to get to printing it sometime this upcoming week.  I would try tomorrow, but I have to do some work on my large "Pluto's" neon sign.  I only have two colors to go until that one is finished and I wound up having to put off printing it last week.  Very excited to get that one closer to being finished.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #lighthouse #maine #acadianationalpark #acadia #bassharbor #bassharborlighthouse #wip

Porsche Spyder - Reduction Linocut - Finished!!

 

Spyder - 12x16" - 7 Color Reduction Linocut

Somehow in all the craziness of this year I forgot to post the final product of my Hot Wheels die-cast car inspired "Spyder".  I had anticipated a 6 to 7 color final piece and it did indeed turn out to be 7 colors.

It was a nice change of pace to the type of artwork that I had been focusing on.  I really have been wanting to expand my subject matters and had a fun time working on the two Hot Wheels inspired pieces that I've done.  Each one bringing it's own set of challenges and exciting finishes.  Though I currently don't have anymore Hot Wheels linocuts in the production pipeline...you never know what the future will hold.  =)

Second to last stage. - Darkest Red printing

 

Detail from the front of the car

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #spyder #hotwheels #porsche #diecast #toys #childhood #artwork #wip

Dark Green - Pluto's

Pluto's Toy - Dark Green

About two weeks ago I printed the dark green shadow area of this piece.  Though I can admit that I was a little worried about how the color would turn out (too light...too dark, etc), it actually turned out incredibly well.

I'm usually incredibly hard on my choices and know when an error has been made, but occasionally I pull the paper away from the block and somewhat "wow" myself.  This color was one of those moments.  It was a mixture of the green used for the highlighted area, prussian blue and some black.  I didn't want to add the black because prussian blue is very dark, but even after mixing quite a bit of the blue into the green the color just wasn't getting where I wanted it to....so alas....some black (albeit a very small amount).

The block is carved and ready for printing, but some life stuff has stepped up and I'm hoping to get around to printing the next color this coming Thursday.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #plutos #toy #disney #disneyhollywoodstudios #florida #neon #lightandshadow

Bass Harbor Lighthouse - miniprint

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

Beginning to start a couple new 3x3" mini prints in hopes that come November some of the art shows that I submit to each year will be able to go on.

I have a couple different ideas floating around for this piece.  When we visited Bass Harbor Lighthouse this past September we were there for sunset, but when we first arrived it was lit with "standard" sunlight.  As the sun went down though the colors being reflected off of the building altered as did the color of the sky.  I actually have created two separate lino blocks for this particular piece.  I plan on doing one for daylight and one for sunset.

Initially I wasn't too sure about which I wanted to do so I scanned the lino block into my computer using a scanner and printed out 6 black and white images of just the drawn image.  I then used my photos and a little bit of artistic license to play with different looks.  These little thumbnails are actual size of the block, but allow me the opportunity to see kinda what works and what won't.

Hopefully within a week or so I'll be able to start posting the printed progressions of both versions.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #reductionlinocut #lighthouse #bassharbor #maine #printingprocess #thumbnailtests

Plutos and a Spyder update!

Pluto's - update

Shortly after my last post I printed the green on the larger Pluto's piece.  In yet another stage of learning, I discovered that I should print green before violet/purple.  The violet wasn't all that dark so I figured (for some reason) that I could successfully print over it in green...I was incorrect.

If you look just to the left of the "Pluto's" neon text you can a variation in the green.  That variation is where the violet was printed.  I now have to double print the green and that should be complete by the end of the day today.  I was going to print it last week (this has been printed for 2 weeks now), but had some other chores and things around the house pop up so I had to push it off until today.

Spyder

WOAH!!!  Here's a piece that I haven't updated in a while.  This poor guy has been on the "on and off" list for quite a while  It kinda got buried when I started the Pluto's piece.  Red was the last color I printed which was only a couple weeks back.  I have somewhere around 4 colors left to go....a black, and I think 3 darker reds for the shadows of the car.  Hopefully I can find some time to get this car back on the road.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #reductionlinocut #neon #Plutos #Spyder #green #red #printingprocess 

Pluto's - NEW(ish)

   

Pluto's - 15x32"

Hello again!  During my silence I also started a new larger Pluto's piece.  The previous was somewhere around 7x14", but it was only ever meant as a test print.  The smaller size left little room for detail and I needed to start the larger piece for an upcoming exhibition so I semi-abandoned the smaller version for the moment and I've been really focusing on this piece almost entirely. 

  

 

These are the first six steps for this piece.  Next up is green...which I'm hoping will really help to start defining the final piece.  There is somewhere around 6 or 7 colors remaining.  I was initially really pushing to have this completed by June 1st, but unfortunately the exhibition that I was going to submit this piece for has been cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Actually....a couple shows I was going to submit to have been cancelled....bah.

Anyhow, as I said, green is next and will be printed tomorrow morning.  I may also attempt to print the sky blue at the same time, but we'll have to see how I'm feeling tomorrow.  Have a nice evening.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #lightandshadow #neon #disney #pluto #disneyhollywoodstudios #florida #wdw #ilovedisney

Nubble Lighthouse - Finished!

Nubble - 3x3" Reduction Linocut

Hi everyone who happens to visit this page on occasion!!

Due to being an essential employee here in US, I've been rather busy with very little time to post on here, but I have continued working on various projects.

First off is this 3x3 inch reduction linocut which is titled "Nubble".  I completed this little guy about 2 or so months ago.  The final two colors since my last post were a dark red for the roof and a dark grey.  I also tried a third black color for the top of the lighthouse, but my wife said she preferred the dark grey one so that's where I stopped.

 

Here are the final two color states on the linocut block before I finished the piece.  The left is inked up with the final dark red color for the roof while the one on the right is the dark grey that was printed previously.

I have new mini lighthouse blocks started for a couple other lighthouses from my Maine trip which include Bass Harbor, Portland Head and Pemaquid.  Hoping to make a nice small series of lighthouses that I got to see on vacation....and hope they all register as well as this one did.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #lighthouse #nubblelighthouse #Maine #lightandshadow

Nubble Lighthouse Red

Nubble Lighthouse - York, ME

So I've also been working on this mini reduction linocut and have been making decent progress.  My last update on this piece was on January 18th so you can always scroll down and see where it started.  I've enjoyed this piece very much and the registration of the colors has been very sharp.

One thing that always drives me crazy with reduction linocuts is that when the surface of the lino really starts to become minimal it becomes harder to keep the carved areas clean.  After each inking, I wind up having to take a rag and make sure that I'm consistently cleaning areas that the roller comes in contact with.

In some cases these marks (known as chatter) can help to really bring a print alive, but since I'm looking for very clean pieces of artwork, I need to wipe any random inking away before printing.

I only have 3 colors remaining on this piece and then it'll finally be complete.  I have a dark red (roof shadow), a dark grey (window/doors) and a black (top of lighthouse) remaining.

I've also begun working on the next lighthouse mini print.  I'm hoping to be able to complete a good number of these lighthouse prints for the NYC mini print show.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #lino #lighthouse #nubblelighthouse #capeneddicklight #york #maine 

Hot Wheels Lotus (Childhood Memories) - Competed mini linocut artwork

Hot Wheels Lotus (Complete)

Size: 2.5x4" on 10x8" paper

5 Color Reduction Linocut - Edition: 14 (+1 Artist Proof)

Cost: $40.00

I finished this little guy up about a week or so ago.  First time ever that I've achieved perfect registration on every single piece that was printed.  It's really nice to get a piece finished...reduction linocuts sometimes take so long that the end seems as though it's never going to come.  It is even worse when you are working on multiple pieces and only have so much time during the week to actually work on them.....some pieces may not get touched for well over a week since all the other ones are being worked on.

Below is a comparison of the final artwork to the actual reference.  As stated in it's title...the subject matter was a Hot Wheels die cast Lotus.  At one point I was going to do these childhood toy pieces on a larger scale, but decided to test at least one in a size that was more representative of the actual toys.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #reductionlinocut #lotus #hotwheels #diecast #cars #completedartwork

New Year and looking forward to a productive year!

  

Hi everyone!  So...again...it's been a little while.  I had a busy holiday season and had some minor health issues that my doctor and I are trying to figure out.

Anyhow, here is a new mini print that I've started.  It is the Nubble Lighthouse on the Cape Neddick Bubble in York, ME.  Back in September my wife and I drove to Maine for our yearly vacation.  MY wife wanted to see some of the lighthouses so we slowly worked our way up the coastline and tried hitting as many as we could.

The Nubble Lighthouse is the first one we came across and it isn't that far over the border with New Hampshire.  When we showed up it was very foggy and we were both prepared to be underwhelmed, but as we got out of the car the sea fog cleared and it became incredibly sunny and warm.  This lighthouse left an indelible mark on both of us and is one of our favorites (of the 14 lighthouses we saw).

This mini print was a test to see how small the detail could get before getting covered by ink.  So far though I'm 3 colors in and the small details have held up and the registration has been absolutely perfect...which is abnormal for me.  I usually have lost a couple at this stage of the mini prints, but so far I have lost none.

This is the progress for the first 3 colors.  This was also my first ever gradient attempt on a print and though it worked out I wound up putting the area of greatest change too low in the print and the ground covered it up....next time...roll the ink on higher.

I'm very happy with the progress so far and still have a lot more to show you from what I've been working on since October.  I'll talk to you all later.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #lightandshadow #lighthouse #nubblelighthouse #maine #vacation #inspiration #update