Mouse's Best Friend - 15x15" Reduction Linocut

"Mouse's Best Friend" - 2024

My artwork output has been severely reduced over these last couple years due to work and life, but each year I manage to work on a couple pieces  Sometimes they work out and I've had to scrap one or two pieces each of the last 2 years so...sometimes they don't work out.

Here is this years piece.  It is actually a companion piece to my "Pluto's Toy" from 2020.  At Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida there is a store located on the left hand side of the park right after you enter called Pluto's Toy Palace.  My previous work included the Pluto's Toy part of that sign and this one is a large Pluto neon sign that sits on top of the building.

This piece is also a restart of a previous piece that....didn't work out.  Previously, I got excited after printing the second color and immediately started carving.  The problem I encountered was that I had carved out not only Pluto's yellow fur, but also his tongue and collar.  I really wanted to do this piece though so I had to restart from scratch.

 

Here are the first four stages to the linocut.  I always start our working lightest to darkest and you also have to take into account the transparency of inks as you go darker.  In some cases a layer of a very light grey or white may need to printed in order to get a color that you want rather than the color you get when already printed color come through that semi to transparent layer you just printed.

In this instance I printed a light grey later to get a better "tongue pink", "tongue red neon" and "light blue collar".

A couple more layers and at this point the image is actually starting to take shape.  This picture at the top of this post is the final piece and in reality a very dark grey for a shadow across the ears and the sky blue were the last two printed colors.

I was very happy with the outcome of this particular piece of artwork.  If it would be possible...would I change some things??  Absolutely, but that knowledge will need to be applied to future pieces.

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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