Different type of work day equals some time for art.

 

So today I'm not working my regular shift and have the morning off.  Since I had some of that time off I decided to finish up some carving on the "B".   I considered printing the next color, but have other projects that I need to advance.  At least I've completed carving away the light yellow of the letter of the actual painted letter.

The image on the left is the completely carved block which is ready for printing while the one of the right is the progress that I had made previously while on break at work.  I do want to double check to make sure that all of the areas are appropriately carved out and that I didn't miss anything.

I also decided to print the shadow on the neon tubing for the 3x3" Shake Shack mini-print.

So far the yellow and light green of the tubing have been printed and I've even carved this block so that it's ready for the color in a couple days.  According to my notes I still have to print a light grey, dark grey and either a black or a very dark grey.....probably a very dark grey.  It always seems to work out better than black.

I've also torn up some paper and started placing registration tabs on them for the Utah desert/bluffs linocut that I've started.  I'll be honest when I say that I really don't know what to call them.  I'll be excited to get that piece started as I don't do many landscapes and it's definitely something I want to learn to do better.

I'm also starting to play with some other images from Zion National Park, but for the moment it's simply just playing with them until I perhaps get them to a point where I'm comfortable with them.

Below are the photoshopped versions of the photos.  I sometimes use photoshop to try and break a photo down into simpler forms as things can sometimes be a bit overwhelming with all the information, colors and variations.  I've been working with the bottom left the most as the way the rock seem layered over one another really appeal to me.

 

 

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #ideas #printingprocesses #carving #printing #ink #B #BucaDiBeppo #neon #sign #landscape #Utah #ZionNationalPark #photoshop 

"B" and La Rose updates!

I really wanted to get to this update as quickly as possible instead of waiting for an entire week to put it up.  Here is the second printing of the neon B.  I made a small carving error and since I had no easy direction to go I decided to move forward and somewhat backwards with my printing.

I'll wait until it's completion to inform you of the error and may actually print a lighter color (white) next in an attempt to fix what I've done.  If you've done this kind of work before it may be simple to figure out the error, but so far so good with what I've done.  The next color may be a make or break stage for this piece.  Registration though is dead on, which is great.

I also printed the La Rose Shop this morning in a light green.  These colors (light grey, light yellow and light green) are not exciting me very much.  They are all very muted and now I'm worried that perhaps I've gone to light on the color pallet.

It is nice to actually get some definition to the print and the color proof that I pulled before printing actually looks very nice in my opinion.  I still need to take a picture of the proof which I will edit into this post later.  I do have some other things that I have to take of today so I hope you all are having a great day!

#art #printmaking #linocut #linoprint #lino #reductionlinocut #neon #B #lightyellow #lightgreen #LAROSESHOP #Greensburg #PA #Buca #Pittsburgh

So many projects...

Here are four of my current projects that are in the process of being worked on.  These do not include the street scene and/or the Utah landscape that I'm working on.

It's been a week since my last printing where I printed the two closest with the yellow (as shown).  The yellow for those prints is the first color for the "B" and the small 3x3 Shake Shack logo.

The La Rose Shop up top is completely carved and ready for printing.  I've also finished carving away the "B" and the small neon tubes of the Shake Shack logo and I've begun the highlights for the neon tubing of the "M" as well.  Though I'll admit to running into a small issue with the "M"...hopefully I can fix it and it won't be a big deal.

Below are some of the pics I've taken after working some of the pieces this past week.

3x3 Shake Shack - neon tubing carving

"B" neon tubing - shadow area carving

I should have some more work finished up shortly, hopefully tomorrow and an update shortly thereafter.

#art #printmaking #linocut #linoprint #lino #reductionlinocut #neon #sign #printingprocess

La Rose Shop - 2nd color printed

Printed the 2nd color for the La Rose Shop linocut on Thursday.  The second color is a light yellow so the excitement here is pretty muted since the contrast between the grey and yellow is not very noticeable.

The most noticeable area is at the bottom left and top right.  In the middle, very lightly is are the neon tubes as well as some brick work down the left hand side.  As I print the next couple colors, these areas should really start to pop more.

Here is a larger detail shot that shows the bricking and a couple of the letters.

 

Here are also two shots of the carving process as I'm now removing the light yellow area.  The image on the left shows the carving around the letters.  I use a small V-gouge to trace/carve around the letters and then go back in with a larger U-gouge to remove the large areas around them.  Though I've carved around the shop, I find myself currently working up to the top at the moment.  There is a decent amount of carving between the letters, neon tubes and shadows so for some reason I've become drawn to those areas.

I have a couple other projects I hope to get printed this coming week and they'll probably get printed before I'm even capable of finishing the carving here.  We'll see though....it would be nice to get 3 projects printed and this one carved and printed.

#art #printmaking #linocut #lino #linoprint #reductionlinocut #LaRoseShop #neon #sign #Greensburg #PA #swpa #vintageroadsign #vintageneon

Printing has commenced!!

I've been a little quiet lately as the Easter holiday has ramped up at work and I've had little time to spend printing and working on new works.  Fear not though!!  I've been taking pieces small enough to work and I've been carving them on breaks.  What I cannot take to work I do work on at home.

I have multiple projects that are currently using similar colors and was looking for a day to print each one.  This past Thursday (now almost a week ago) I got to print two of the four projects that I have started.

The La Rose Shop was the first to be printed and used a majority of the light grey ink that I mixed up.  I knew it would take a lot of it as the print is 9x20".  The light grey is the shadow area of the neon tubing and also doubles as the mortar between the bricks on the sun highlighted side of the building.  I'm expecting that this print will top out somewhere around 8-9 colors.  I should be printing the color very soon...possibly even in the morning tomorrow.

I've also started a series of 3x3" prints which I plan to submit to an exhibition.  I've never worked this small and the carving is already giving me new challenges.  The very first color for this neon "M" lino is the same grey as used on the La Rose Shop above.  The entire block was inked as this color will be used for the background of the sign.  I've been carefully carving away the sections and will print a slightly darker grey for the neon tubing color and then yet another for the shadow on the tubing.  I'm thinking that this print should top out at around 6-7 colors, but I'm honestly leaning more towards the 6.

Anyhow, I promise to try and update sooner than I did this past time.  Talk to you all soon.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #neon #LaRoseShop #Greensburg #PA #swpa #sign #M #YMCA #Pittsburgh

Diner - Completed!!

Diner - 10x22" - 10 color reduction linocut

I printed black over the Diner print this past week.  It was the tenth and final color of this reduction linocut.  Very happy with the final result and glad that I didn't decide to scrap this project.  I still see things in the print that I wish I had changed, but you know what they say about hindsight.

I remember driving by this sign and it was a bright day, but the sun was not at a really good angle and I continued driving.  It was actually my wife that convinced me to turn around and taken another look at it.  I did and still continued driving a little bit.  I really wasn't even going to stop, but at the last second decided to.  I think the shadows on this print are rather interesting as they are long and don't necessarily reflect the shadows of the letters themselves.

The image above is slightly skewed from the left to the right.  The actual prints are not like that and the picture above is just my fantastic, photographical abilities with my phone while I'm still excited to share the print, but still in the process of cleaning up the ink.

As of today the ink is still slightly tacky, but it should be dry within a day or two.  At that point I'll start examining the prints to see which are keepers and which are not.

I finished tearing up some paper and attaching the Ternes Burton registration pins for multiple projects and have even begun working on a small series of 3x3" prints for submission to a show in New York City that I'd like to submit too.  Pics of those will be upcoming.  I literally just finished preparing one and will begin the next as soon as I'm done here.

I hope everyone likes this print and hope you all have a good night!

#art #printmaking #linocut #diner #reductionlinocut #black #printingprocess #somerset #pa #swpa #completed

One down and only one to go!!

Got to print the 2nd to last color the other day.  I printed a medium blue....not quite a true blue and not quite a dark blue.  This color is only partially seen on the edges of the round parts of the sign that hold the letters.  It is a reflection color off of the rest of the sign.  Those edges are blue, but with how the sun was shining down that day it managed to reflect back up onto those sides and gave me another color to work with.

I'm excited to get this piece finished.  I've put all my effort into getting this piece completed before starting any of my other projects.  I tend to get that way...I have multiple things going, but as soon as one nears completion I usually set the other ones aside and focus everything on that one particular piece (unless I'm really close to completing multiple projects...then I'll forge ahead with all of them).

I'm not sure what happened while printing this color, but I literally had it all over my hands.  I'm usually a fairly clean printer, but somehow this time I managed to get it on my knuckles, the back of my hands, my arms, palms....I have no idea what happened.  I'm usually good as keeping it contained to just a little on my fingertips.

Here's the final carving of the block.  It's all ready to go and even though it's only been a couple days the ink still has a light tack to it so I'm just going to wait it out and print it sometime next week....hopefully mid-week, but possibly next Saturday (EEKS!  That's a full week away!)

If it turns out to be Saturday, then I may actually just start the printing on the Green Street print that I have started.  It's only a light color and shouldn't take too much time to print since the brayer I use can cover that entire surface with 1 or 2 rolls.

Til next time!!

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocess #Diner #neon #sign #Somerset #PA #swpa #SummitDiner