Do Flamingos drink Coke? - updates

 

Flamingo - 8x6" - 7 color reduction

So since my last post, I've actually managed to print 2 colors for the neon Flamingo.  I printed a grey for the shadows cast by parts of the Flamingo.  I don't appear to have any photos on my computer of that stage (they are probably still on my phone) so I'm going to just continue with the 3rd color.

The third color was a light pink which is mostly a background color.  I printed two pieces before deciding that I wasn't that crazy with how the color was working out.  The pink I had mixed just seemed way too light so I added some additional red into it and made a much nicer value.

This is both colors set side by side.  I printed the rest of the edition and then once I finished I went back and reprinted the first two pieces that were with the lighter color.  I like how this piece is turning out so far.  The colors are so far pretty good and I have already mixed up the next pink...it's sort of a mid-pink...darker than the image on the right, but not to dark.  It's hard to explain, so I guess we'll just have to wait until the next update.  I was hoping to print it today, but it's still very tacky to the touch so hopefully next week.

Flo's  - 12x16 - 9 color reduction linocut

Flo's is moving along pretty well.  I've printed the two pinkish layers in that upper left corner of the block.  That area is a "V8" logo that is at the center of the structure.  Both pinks printed very rapidly since it was such a small area.

I needed to find the second pink color and needed it to pop against the initial light pink.  In the past, I've created a second color only to find that it didn't really contrast well with the initial piece.  I'm very happy with the color and I'm really excited about the next color...problem is...the ink is still tacky and now I must wait.

 

Coca-Cola - 3x3" - 5 color reduction linocut

I've made pretty good progress on the Coca-Cola since it's last update.  I printed the initial light grey which doubles for the background color as well as the shadowed area of the logo on the bottle cap.  I've made this an edition of 20 so far.  I don't usually make an edition of this size as I find it...unexciting...to print the same image over and over and over.  I like to print a couple of one image and then move onto another piece.  At 3x3" though, I figured it would create a good number of prints that I could submit to various shows all at once.

 

Just today I printed the second color for the bottle cap.  Just a straight red which is also the red highlight of the bottle cap.  All other reds used will now be shadow colors.  I'm very happy so far with the registration as well.  It doesn't look very exciting at the moment, but I'm hoping with the next red it'll really create some depth to the image.

I've also torn the paper for the 16x20" Ice Cream print that my wife has been wanting.  I'm excited to get it started and afraid at the same time.  There are quite a few colors to this piece and I just have this fear of messing it up somewhere along the line.  Hopefully I won't and I'll be thrilled with it, but of course for right now...it's a lot of what ifs.

Have some errands to run so I'll update everyone hopefully next week.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #flamingo #neon #Flos #Disney #LasVegas #lightandshadow #CocaCola #bottlecap #red #pink #printingprocess

Pixar and soda (pop) based inspirations

 

Flo's - 12x16" - 9 Color Reduction Linocut

I've begun working on a couple of the newer pieces that i have been planning.  First up is "Flo's", it is based on a location in the Disney/Pixar film Cars.

Disney has always been a major inspiration for myself.  During high school the only thing that I wanted to do was become a Disney animator.  I did pursue that dream and attended college for animation.  Though the dream of animating for Disney never came true, I did get to work freelance in animation for a small studio located just outside of Pittsburgh, PA and I did get to see my work on a big screen (okay, so it was a scoreboard at PNC Park (home to the Pirates), but it was still a big screen).

During our last anniversary trip, my wife and I traveled to California and spent the first couple days at both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.  If you have not had the chance to visit California Adventure, I do recommend giving a shot at some point.  Cars Land is a section of the park completely devoted to the movie Cars and is practically a perfect recreation of Radiator Springs from the movie....neon and all.  Both my wife and I became quite enamored with the place that we visited 3 times over our last 2 days at Disney.

My piece, "Flo's", is based on a photo that I took of part of the signage for the fictional gas station.

(Inked block - Color #1 - Light Grey)

 

(Left: Color Proof - Right: Printed Light Grey Layer)

 

Coca-Cola - 3x3" - 5 Color Reduction Linocut

I've also started another mini print of a Mexican Coca Cola bottlecap.  Coca-Cola recently released Georgia Peach and California Raspberry flavored glass bottled Cokes.  After trying them both I wound up sitting on the couch with my wife for a while.  When I went to throw the bottles and caps away, I noticed that the light from the lamp created all types of highlights and shadows across the bottle cap.  Needless to say...it stopped me and though the original intention was to do the Georgia Peach cap, I decided instead on a traditional Mexican Coke cap.

I would like to do a larger scale piece, but really want to do a test piece first so I've chosen to do a mini-print of it first.  Depending on the outcome of this piece may lead to larger 8x8 or 10x10" pieces.

(Paper "white" areas carved away and prepared for printing of first color)

Lastly....

YMCA - 4x12" - 5 Color Reduction Linocut

This is a piece that I've fiddled with since I first started doing linocut.  It's based off of a location on Pittsburgh's North Side.  I've struggled doing this piece ever since and I don't understand why...it's a simple 5 color piece.  The "M" was recently the subject of one of my mini-prints.  This piece isn't overly large and part of me would really like to do it as a large scale piece...say 9x20" or 10x22".  Since I have the Flo's and another 16x20 piece currently in my pipeline, I'll hold off for the time being and just complete this smaller version.

That's all for this update.  I should have some new printed pieces by the end of today and tomorrow.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocesses #lightandshadow #neon #bottlecap #disney #pixar #animation #flos #carsland #californiaadventure #ymca #cocacola #coke

Some new work and a finished piece!

 

"a" - 8 color reduction linocut - COMPLETE!!

Hi everyone!  Okay, so it's been almost a month since my last post....I didn't realize that I had gone that long without an update.  Yikes.  I have had a semi-busy past month and have gotten some chances to do work on some projects while also helping out a friend who is starting up her own art center.  Her and I both attended the same college and both graduated together with degrees in Art Education.  Her art center will teach young children through adults.  She has a long list of art techniques that she is very good at, but apparently her knowledge of linocut printmaking needed some fine tuning.  I packed up my press and a bunch of supplies and spent the day giving her as much information that I could pull from my head.  We also started a small reduction print so that she could get used to the feel of mixing the ink, creating the ink well, inking the block and finally printing it through the press.  It was a fun afternoon and I look forward to our next meeting, where I'll be refreshing her screenprinting knowledge.

Beyond that I completed the "a" from the Las Vegas Harley Davidson Cafe sign.  I really like the end result and I'm starting to kick around creating a much larger version of the entire "Cafe" part of the sign.  My original version, if you look back through the history on this blog, met it's demise after I reached the 4th or 5th color.  It just didn't work out and that's why I eventually just did this print here.  I wanted to see if I could at least create a part of it.  I figured this would allow me to work out some of the kinks that I had experienced during the first attempt.

Green Street - 8x10 - unknown # of colors linocut

I've also made a little progress on this piece here.  Since my last update on this piece, I've managed to print the shadow blue and carve the block.  This piece is at the "not so exciting" point.  I'm enjoying it, but I have no real push to work on it all the time.  I think the fact that I don't know how many colors it's supposed to be isn't helping me.  I don't have an endpoint that I'm working towards and it really seems to be dragging.  I can see at least another 6-7 colors that I need, but it could also be more....I promise to spend more time with this guy pretty soon.

Flamingo - 6x8 - 9 color reduction linocut

I have also started working through my mounted lino block and this is the first actual printed piece.  Though the color here seems fairly dark, it is actually a lot lighter and is the first layer of the famed Flamingo casino from the Las Vegas strip.

My Blick 906 press has seen such little work since I got the 999 press that I was excited to print with it again.  Once I work through my mounted block, I'll probably set it to also work with unmounted lino and do smaller pieces with it.  This block is currently being carved, but I haven't gotten very far since I've been working most of the time since this was printed.

Ice Cream - 16x20 - 13(?) color reduction linocut

I've transferred and used Sharpie to trace over the pencil lines.  I had to create the neon tubing shadows for this piece because the original reference photo doesn't have the appropriate sunlight.  The pinkish areas will be carved shortly and then I'll be able to print.  The green areas are the cast shadow.  I needed to mark them differently so they didn't get lost among all the other black lines.  Excited to get this piece printed.

Time to get to some carving though.  I promise a quicker update, even if it's just a short update dealing with a single piece.  Talk to you all soon.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocess #neon #lightandshadow #updates #printingprocesses

A finished piece!! (with a side of updates)

TACO - Finally completed.

After printing that past color, I asked my wife what she thought...

She replied:  "Is it done?"

That told me that it was indeed not done.  The dark grey just seemed to close to the dark shadow green color.  I then printed black over top of the grey.  Unfortunately, the way that cameras work it appears in the image above that the black and shadow green are also similar...sigh.  They are not all that similar in person.

This is my first completed print of 2018 (even though it was started in 2017).

 

"a" - 10x10 - shadow red printed layer

This piece is down to two colors remaining.  I printed the shadow red last week and I must say that I'm very happy with that red.  Last time I printed a red with a shadow red that color turned out odd and I didn't like it very much after I finished printing.  

I learned about using a ready made color vs. mixing my own.  I will now always mix my own if it doesn't seem to be working out as initially intended.  Only a medium, dark grey and a dark grey/black remain for this piece.  Very happy with the registration as well with this piece.  It's very spot on.

Green Street - 8x10 - Shadow Blue

So this little buy didn't necessarily turn out as intended.  I get thrown off course by a colors transparency.  Some colors are very opaque while others....not so much.  This piece is an example of such....I printed a shadow blue over the blue house.  As you can see, the transparency of the blue permitted the yellow (which was printed earlier) to show through and thus creating a very dark green.

I'll be reprinting a more opaque version of the blue shortly.  This is the reason why I normally like to ink the entire block.  If I ink the entire block then whatever happens, happens in a uniform fashion.  This is what I get trying to cut corners and save ink.

I realize that this update was a little late and I apologize, but my wife and I went on an early February vacation (first time for something like this).  We are back though and I've gotten two newer pieces almost prepared for printing.  A 12x16 and a 16x20 (which will be the largest overall piece that I've tried at home).

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocess #updates #a #taco #GreenStreet

Tacos, A's and and two new bigger pieces!!

 

TACO

Taco is one color away from being finished.  After printing this dark green shadow color I had possibly planned on stopping.  I wasn't totally sure after printing that I was done so I gave it a couple days for me to look at and I've decided that I the dark green doesn't darken areas enough.  A few small areas are a very dark color...in this case, I think I'm actually going to go dark grey.

I did try printing a dark green that I had mixed with some of my inks, but it didn't lay right or print nicely onto the actual print.  Perhaps I'm learning, because after seeing that I wasn't crazy about how it looked I decided to blot the ink and set it aside.  I threw away the ink that I had mixed up and grabbed two tubes of my better ink and decided to mix my own green.

Initially I had used a Speedball Oil Based Green, Blue and Black to create the darker green.  The second time I used my Graphic Chemical Yellow and my Cranfield Traditional Relief Ink Ultramarine to mix a green.  I then added a small amount of black to it to darken it way up.  I really like the color of the Speedball Green since it is very vibrant, but it's quality is not up to the level of the other brands that I had to use.

I wound up with a dark Olive Green color (see pic above) that laid and printed very nicely.  I'm very happy that I've finally learned that if something isn't looking right....to stop, reconsider and just start over.  (It's the starting over part that is difficult, since I've already spent considerable time with the initial color that I mixed.)

This is all that remains of the block.  Just little pieces here and there that will get inked in a dark grey and printed.  Even though there is so little to ink up, the inking process I've found at this point generally takes longer.  After each inking I have to take a rag and wipe excess off of the block much more than on previous layers.  Happy that this piece will be completed soon and I'm ecstatic with how the registration turned out (for once) and the look of the piece in general.

"a"

I also printed the red background for the "a" project.  I love the ink that I used for this piece.  It's practically the perfect ink...Daniel Smith Oil-Based Red.  It's so smooth and creamy and perfect....too bad they stopped making printmaking inks a couple years back.  I have purchased some newer reds for when my two tubes of this color finally say adieu.

The "a" has 2 or 3 colors left to print...a shadow red, a medium grey and possibly a dark grey.  I'm very happy with how this piece is turning out as well.  Again the registration has been spot on and I've taken notice of how other artists (printmakers & painters) tackle those little round areas where the neon tubing drops into the surface of the sign.  These ones are the first ones I've ever made that I'm totally happy with.

The "a" is also ready for the shadow red.  I was very happy after printing the red that I immediately carved the block so that I'd be ready to print the next color.

Finally, I've started two new bigger pieces.  One that I just happened to love the photo that I used for reference and another that my wife has been asking me to make.  The reference for the piece she wants requires reworking since the sunshine was in the incorrect location when I got a picture of it.

Flo's - 12x16

The first piece is "Flo's" from the movie Cars.  Cars Land at Disneys California Adventure really changed my view of those movies and I fell completely in love with so many of the signs.  I just recently finished the initial drawing of the image and transferred it to the lino block.  I should be pretty far along with this piece when the next update here occurs.

"Ice Cream" - 16x20

This is the piece that my wife has been asking for....for quite a while.  I just didn't have any references other than other peoples photos from online and I wasn't comfortable using other peoples stuff.  There were multiple neon Ice Cream cones that we came across while in California, but this one from Disneys' California Adventure was the one that we both really liked.

Problem with this photo is though....there is no hard shadow on the side facing me.  I've decided to take a big leap and attempt to put the sun on that side.  I have a plan to replicate the cast shadow exactly and I'm really hoping it works properly.  It should....in theory.  This piece is going to take some time before it finally meets the lino to be transferred.

#art printmaking #linocut #lino #reductionlinocut #a #icecream #neon #taco #lightandshadow #printingprocess

Blues houses, orange neon and green letters

Green Street - 8x10" Reduction

This past Thursday I managed to print three more pieces....first up is the Green Street print.  I had been kicking around which house needed to be printed next and since I had gotten a new tube of Cranfield Ultramarine Blue in the mail a couple weeks back it won.  Only the side of the house in this instance was printed as the front is in the shadow and will be printed a darker blue.

The Cranfield Traditional Relief Inks are a little stiffer than I'm used to working with so it took a little time to realize that I needed to loosen it up a bit.  The first couple prints that I printed had inconsistent color application so once I had printed the remaining pieces with the loosened up ink, I went back and reprinted the first 4.  I think once I print the next blue layer (the shadow color) this print will really start to form and I'll have a better idea as to how it's working out.  So far though, I'm very happy with it and the registration has been very consistent.

a - 10x10" Reduction

Believe it or not, I actually forgot about this print.  The amount of carving has been minimal for the last couple steps and I don't really spend much time with it whereas the Green Street and TACO prints have had significant planning and carving.  I guess I'm just not used to simpler pieces.

Anyhow, this past week I printed a nice orange layer for the neon tubes that skirt the edges of the  print.  This piece did not take too much time to print since I was only printing these tiny areas.  The big change will happen next week when I print the red.  The red area takes up the majority of the print and I'm excited to really see how this print changes once I get that color put down.  I made sure that the orange for the tubing that I just printed was nowhere near the color of the red....hopefully this will mean that the colors will have more contrast than previous attempts at putting these colors so closely together.

TACO - 12x6" Reduction

TACO is practically done.  I have possibly 1 to 2 layers remaining, but if I like how the next dark green shadow layer looks, the print may actually be finished at that point.  I was considering a dark grey to mark certain areas, but I've noticed on other prints that I've done that the color I'm considering isn't always needed since the color before actually accomplishes the same goal.

The next color, a dark shadow green will be printed this coming week.  I like this print, but will probably steer clear or alter future pieces where the colors are all so similar.  A very minor issue I have with this piece is the fact that these colors are so close to each other.  You want them to contrast against each other, but too much contrast is distracting.  I'm not entirely sure about the neon tubing on this piece as the colors are pretty close.  I used the initial lighter color to create the shadow color for the tubing and I'm wondering if I should've possibly gone darker.  It's obviously too late now, but this information with at least be useful for future pieces.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #lino #GreenStreet #Greensburg #PA #a #neon #HarleyDavidsonCafe #LasVegas #NV #Taco #TacoBar

Been a good couple weeks of progress.

Hi everyone!  So it's been a busy couple weeks since my last post.  I've been working fairly consistently. I've been managing printing a coiuple hours each Thursday.

My TACO print has seen a good bit of progress.  Seen above is the first green layer.  This layer is the highlight color for the neon tubing.  I've also printed the second green color (the normal/shadow color) of the neon tubing (see below).

The registration for this print has been very, very good and I can honestly say I'm surprised.  I didn't think my new registration jig would give me this much control.

The images above are both from the printing of the first neon green.  I needed a green that would be light enough so they subsequent greens could each go darker.  In total, there will be four different greens involved in this piece.  Only two other colors were used and they were both greys.

I also used the second green from the TACO on the grass for the Green Street print.  Due to the amount of colors in this print, I've reached a point where I'm not sure that it's even going to work.  It probably will, but since I have so many more colors....I don't even know how many.....the doubts in how it'll look at the end are starting to form in my head.  

Going to just keep pushing forward with it.

I also made a decision that this year I wanted to start using the various mounted lino blocks that I have.  For the past year, I've used unmounted lino on all my pieces and I unfortunately have a bunch of mounted blocks.

My first mounted project for this year is of the famous Flamingo logo for the Las Vegas casino.  I've almost completed the first section of carving.  There is only a small amount in the upper left that I need to do and then I'll be prepping the paper so I can hopefully print this upcoming Thursday.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #neon #printingprocess #reliefprint #updates #lasvegas