Finally starting to get back at it!!

Hi everyone!

Been exceptionally quiet here for quite a while, but things at the new house are progressing along....slowly, but art making is about to get put back into gear.  I've set up my press and finally dug out all of my inks and supplies.

A couple days back I began digging through projects that were already started and seeing if there was anything that I could do with them.  Most of these projects haven't been touched in a minimum of 7 months.  Thankfully, in some of the more major project cases I wound up leaving myself hand written notes as to what I was doing when I packed them up.

Other pieces.....not so lucky with.....as is the case with these miniature Maine lighthouse linocuts.

I wound up printing the block onto tracing paper and letting the ink dry.  I wasn't sure what else to do, but this worked nicely and allowed me to see the last areas printed.  =D

Anyhow, it's nice to be back....hopefully you'll be seeing more from me soon.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocesses #backinthesaddle

 

New Horizons and a lull in making artwork.

 I have a new post in the draft stages....I was having issues uploading photos and what fun is a post about art if I cannot show any of it.

Anyhow, I will be trying to finalize that shortly.  My regular job has been absolutely crazy as we are very short handed and I've been working quite a lot.....good for the money, not so good for anything else in life.

After many years of renting though, my wife and I have decided to buy a house.  We are currently a month away from closing and have been spending most of our free time getting rid of stuff and boxing the rest up.  Once we are in our new home I will get back to making artwork...I've already had about 2 months off and I'm probably a good 3 months away from being ready to start up again.

Doug

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

 

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