Updates on current pieces - Ice Cream and Green Street

Green Street - 8x10" Linocut

I've not surrendered to this piece yet.  =D

I'm still pushing ahead and recently printed the large green grass area at the bottom (obviously).  This color is a middle tone for the grass and will show up here and there.  I will print a darker green over top to indicate shadows on both the bushes and the grass itself.  I'm in the process of trying to figure out/carving out the areas for this particular color.  I'm feeling probably another 5-6 colors until I complete this piece.

 

Ice Cream - 20x16" Linocut

I've advanced one color on the Ice Cream piece as well.  If you compare the last update of this piece with this one you may think that I'm showing the same picture, but I assure you I'm not.  You can see some really light detail of the yellow neon tubing which makes up the edges of the cone and a little on the bottom where it crosses horizontally.

I've also been working on the block and trying to get it carved as soon as possible as I'm enjoying this piece a good bit so far.  If my calculations are correct, I'm looking at probably another 7 colors on this piece until it is finished as well.

I've also been busy working on a new piece entitled "Racer" which will be my longest piece ever created at 34".  The subject matter is of an old roller coaster located at Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh, PA.  I'm hoping to have this piece done by early, early spring, but the size of it may also call for the purchase of a larger brayer to ink the block up.  I'm not exactly sure how this will work out...a new brayer is rather expensive and the amount of time it would take to ink the block without one would be considerable.  

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #icecream #neon #yellow #streetview #houses #greengrass

Ice Cream!!

Ice Cream - 16x20" - Reduction Linocut

I've restarted the Ice Cream print due to unhappiness with the original that I started a while back.  Originaly I started with a light grey color that completely altered the color of the next layer...a light yellow.  Yellow is generally very transparent so the grey showed through and created a very non-appealing yellow color.

I chose to restart and instead of starting with grey I began with a very light yellow.  This time around I'm going to do all the yellows and some light oranges before moving onto the grey.  I am at the moment right up against vacation and a friend's Grand Opening of a business she is opening so I probably won't have any time to work on this until my return from vacation.

I am going to continue printing both the original print that I started as well as the newer piece.  I'm going to probably alter the colors of the older piece since it wasn't quite working out as expected.  I am excited about this piece and some of the upcoming pieces that I have planned.

Stay tuned...but I probably won't post for another two to two and a half weeks.

#art, #printmaking, #linocut, #reductionlinocut, #neon, #icecream, #yellow, #disney, #californiaadventure, #california, #paradisepier

Flo's V8 Cafe - Disney/Pixar themed Original Linocut

Flo's - 12x16" - 10 Color Reduction Linocut (COMPLETE)

Edition: 7 - 1 Artist Proof

So here it is!!  After a couple months worth of work I finally printed the final color (black).

The registration on this piece has been fantastic.  I usually tend to lose 1 or 2 prints from an edition due to registration issues, but this time I printed 8 and still have 8.  I have several other signs from Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure that would be just as fun as this one was. 

I'll be considering them in the future, but I do have a couple smaller pieces that I've started as well as one that will be probably the biggest piece that I've ever attempted.  The big one will push the limit of my press.

Here is the progression of steps for the colors used in this piece.  I apparently missed taking a photo of the second step which was the light pink by itself.  The second image that has the grey and pink also includes a darker pink that was printed 3rd.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #printingprocess #flos #disney #pixar #cars #carsland #californiaadventure #disneyland #reliefprint #neon 

New updates for Flo's and Green Street

Flo's - Printed Grey Layer

This past Saturday, even though I had a lot of other things non-art related to do, I pushed myself to get at least something done this week.  I mixed up the first grey layer for Flo's and printed the 7th layer.

I mixed up a considerable amount of ink so that when I print the next layer all that I will need to do is add some additional black to the color to darken it up.  Registration has still continued to be spot on with this piece.  Though it appears that the paper may have stretched a little recently due to the amount of humidity that we've had this summer.  

I have also carved the block and I'm now prepared to print the darker shadow grey.  This will probably have to wait until sometime next week.  My wife's birthday is this coming weekend and I'll be spending my time with her, but at least I'll be completely ready to go when the time comes.

 

Green Street - Shadow Red

I actually started my day printing this piece.  I seem to be getting closer to the end with this piece.  I estimate that I need another 5-6 colors.  I like the contrast of the red and I'm becoming somewhat excited for this piece again.  I'm not entirely sure which color comes next, but I think it might be the shadow green color for the trees, bushes and grass.  I ordered some new ink recently and it should up soon and I may wind up using one of them for the shadow green color.

That's pretty much it for this week.  I just got some paper for the restarted Ice Cream print so I'll be working at tearing that down to size soon and getting a start on that piece as well.  I also have two smaller pieces that have both been transferred to linoleum and I'm preparing for a new large piece (16.5x33").  My etching press can only handle 17x34" so I wanted to print something close to that size.  Stay tuned!!  

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #neon #residential #flos #disney #pixar #californiaadventure #disneyland #carsland #cars #houses #street #Greenstreet #Greensburg #PA 

Picking back up on Green Street

 

Green Street - Red house....???...waitaminute....

So after quite a while away from this piece, I decided today to just forge ahead with it.  Next up the highlighted red house.  I'm not sure that this is the proper color to go with next, but I really want to get these houses done.

I was busy printing and had Star Wars: The Last Jedi playing in the background...I know, I know...it's not that great of a movie, but unlike many I can actually watch it multiple times and not be offended by how things turned out for that movie.

Anyhow...as you can see from the above shots the dark side had some influence on the process.

I was in the middle of the scene where Kylo Ren and Luke square off against each other and was partially watching/printing.  I put the block down on the press bed properly, but was more focused on the movie when I placed the paper down.  DOH!!!  It's been quite a while since I've made one of these goofs.  It actually caught me so off guard that I actually laughed at myself.

This small error obviously shrinks the edition number of the final pieces.  Whoops.  The color did turn out better than I expected so hopefully with this new success on this piece I'll be able to push ahead and start to finalize this piece.

My "a" print was also accepted into a local show where I live so I also spent the morning framing up this piece for the show.  Excited to have two pieces in different shows (Diner is the other one).

There are also a couple of other shows coming up that I plan on submitting too.  Hopefully this will be the year where I manage to get myself into 4+ shows.  So far the most I've been accepted to is 2.

#art, #printmaking, #linocut, #reductionlinocut, #reductionprint, #reliefprint, #printingprocess, #exhibition, #residentialart, #greenstreet, #lightandshadow, #houses

Flo's - Sky Blue printed

Flo's - 12x16" Reduction Linocut - Sky Blue

Welcome back everyone!

Been a bit slow of a time for myself and I'm hoping with the passing of the July 4th holiday here in the United States that my regular day job will lighten up slightly and I'll get a little time to more on my piece.

I also ran into an issue where I ordered some ink that I really needed and wound up having my order cancelled....I'm not sure what happened to it, but the amount of the order was charged and then refunded to my credit card with no explanation.  I didn't want to get double charged so I waited a week just to make sure that it wouldn't show back up on my credit card....and it didn't.

The ink arrived this past Tuesday and by Thursday I had printed the sky color for the Flo's piece.  I'm not sure if it was the heat for the day, which was over 90 degrees, but the ink was acting a little funny and I wound up having to print the color twice.  The final result is very nice and the ink coverage is incredible.

I was happy to get the piece printed that I took this larger block with me to work the next couple days and worked on carving it while on my breaks.  Very little got done the first day, but the second day I put a little more effort in and completed carving away the sky by the end of my shift.  Ready to print the next color as soon as it dries.

I also have a few pieces that I'm starting to work on as well of various sizes.  Hopefully I'll be able to move forward with these in the near future.

#art, #printmaking, #linocut, #reductionlinocut, #reductionprint, #flos, #disney, #cars, #carsland, #californiaadventure, #pixar

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