A new year...a new...wait....old...Cafe

Cafe - 2016

Oh dear....it's been quite a while since my last update.  I will say though that things got very busy over the holiday season and finishing up the Pluto's Toy piece (see last post) really took a lot out of me creatively.  

I have been slowly at work though on a couple projects.  I will try to highlight the stages of production for some of those each week.

My first post I suppose will start with this piece that I attempted back in 2016.  It is part of the sign for the Harley Davidson Las Vegas Cafe which is now closed.  I liked the Cafe part of this sign very much and I was still very "young" when it came to making prints at home rather than in a studio environment.  I was also painfully learning about the issues of different inks.  Three colors in and this 9x12" piece became my first major disaster (if I remember correctly).

So...fast forward 4 years and my desire to complete this piece properly came back to me.  I always had one of the failures hanging on the wall as a reminder of what could've been.

Cafe - 2020/2021

This lino block was started and carved back in late 2020.  The original was 9x12" and I decided to make my life easier with the smaller details by turning this one into a 12x16" piece.  Though I would love to work on smaller pieces, I find that pieces larger than 10x10" are more fun for me.

Part of my issue with the first attempt was that I printed grey first.  I learned very quickly that yellows or variations there of should always be printed first.  This image is a light yellow highlight on some of the neon tubing and then the second color a warm yellow which is the actual coloring of the tubing for this print.

Next step is a light grey for other areas of neon tubing.  This grey actually printed darker than I wanted, but I discovered a way of fixing that issue on another print that I was working on so my next color will actually become the highlighted area of the tubing.

As for now though...this is the current stage of the Cafe.  I'm currently in the process of carving out the neon tubing and will hopefully have an update on this piece in about a week or so.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #cafe #neon #lasvegas #harleydavidson #printingprocess

 

Two completed pieces and a Flo.

Coca-Cola Bottlecap - 3x3" reduction linocut -COMPLETE!!

I finally completed the Coca-Cola bottlecap this past week.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  For something that started out as a small test piece for a possible larger piece, I'm pleased that I decided to go this route.

The only disappointment that I have with it is after carving the background away, I needed to leave some areas uncarved so that the block fit into the registration jig properly.  Those uncarved areas are seen at the top corners and the bottom right (slightly) - they became embossed into the papers surface as I continued printing.

 

Flo's - 12x16" reduction linocut

Flo's is still continuing to impress me.  The registration has been exact on every single piece.  I've never experienced this success yet and I'm down to 3 colors left and this piece will be complete.

The left image shows the block as I'm just starting to ink it up.  I have to roll multiple, thin layers of ink across the surface and slowly build up the ink.  I usually spend about 10 minutes just slowly inking the block and trying to make sure that there is an even coating of ink before I print.  After the block has been inked and printed for the first time it becomes much easier to ink.

Flamingo - 8x6" reduction linocut - COMPLETE!

I've struggled to get a good picture of this piece.  It seems to drive the camera on my phone as well as my traditional camera crazy and the quality is almost always poor for this piece.  Both cameras work great for every other piece I've done or am working on, but for some reason they both struggle to take a decent picture of the Flamingo.

I did decide to print one last color onto the Flamingo.  If you look along some of the edges you'll notice a much darker, bold line.  It does not completely outline the Flamingo, but instead just where the shadow fell.  I do like how this piece finally turned out and I'm much happier with the additional dark areas.  I believe that I've now completed 4-5 pieces so far this year...which is probably the most I've ever completed at this point.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #neon #bottlecap #coke #cocacola #flamingo #lasvegas #lightandshadow #flos #cars #carsland #disney

"a", "Green Street", "Taco" and "Zion" mini

Even though my up dates are a little slower these days, I still manage to work out a couple prints a week.  Granted this process all takes place within 5-6 hours on a single day, but.....it's at least progress towards their end points.  I suppose one update every other week isn't too bad though. =D

 

As shown above though, I printed the second color to the "a" print.  The first color, a light grey was for the shadows on the neon tubing.  This second color, medium grey, is another shadow layer for this piece.  I have this piece marked for 6 colors and I'm 1/3 of the way through.  I'm currently in the progress of marking all the areas that will need carved before printing the next layer.

I'm trying a new "high tech" registration method using a pieces of matboard.  The taco print is actually the first to test this configuration on.  So far though, I've also used it on the "a" and the Green Street print and so far so good.

 

Taco is a little different than what I'm used to printing where the tubing is generally clear or has a light color to it.  With "taco" the tubing is green...as are the letters.  The shadow and the hardware for the neon tubing support are the current grey colors.  Most of this block has already been carved for the next color, but I do have some smaller areas to clean up before moving onto the next color.

Green Street is also coming along very nicely so far with the new registration.  I usually don't ink small areas, I've done it on multiple pieces, but I generally like to see the print completely transform from layer to layer.  There is so much little detail in this piece though that I've decided to focus on one house at a time.

 

First up is the yellow house on the street.  I first printed a light yellow and then a second darker yellow (created with a mix of red and blue that I also mixed up).  I find it odd that the color I mixed almost matches up with a Yellow Ochre I made with a different yellow and Sepia.....I don't know how that works, apparently their are some similar colors in the Sepia mix.

This piece is actually working out pretty good and I've begun the carving of the yellow house.  The blue house is probably next, but I'm also considering the sky since it is actually the next lightest color.  There will be reflection of the sky in some of the windows so I'll have to figure out which way I want to go before I move on.

Finally for this update is the piece that I did not get to work on this past week.  I have one color left to print on this piece and then it's done.  Very excited about this, too bad I just didn't have the time for it.  A dark green, which is the shadow color for the foliage, is the only color that is left to print.  This piece is slightly mis-registered, but overall I like how it has turned out so far.

This little print will be one of my submissions for next years mini-print exhibition in New York.  I will also be starting a couple newer mini-prints so that I have a variety to work with. 

This is so far my first successful landscape.  I know that it's small sized help me to better understand how to create these and hoping to make some larger pieces that turn out just as well if not better.  I always keep in mind that with every piece I make I'm learning something new and in that learning I'll be able to better each attempt.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #print #a #neon #sign #neonsign #landscape #Utah #Zion #NPS #GreenStreet #mystreet #houses #lightandshadow #yellow #Greensburg #PA #taco #djstacobar #lasvegas #nv