Ice Cream - 20x16" - 12 Color Reduction Linocut

 

Ice Cream - 20x16"

I've really slacked off on showing progress for this piece lately.  Since my last post I've printed 3 variations on a magenta/pink and a grey.  It's kinda crazy how the third time is a charm.  Usually failing twice at something really causes some form of hesitation on attempting the same subject matter for the third time.  Failure is generally a fantastic learning tool though.  It may not be what you want to have happen, but it teaches so much more than constant success.

I was originally down to two remaining colors, but decided to mix a color just to see how the next grey would react to some added blue.  When I finally finished mixing up a small batch of this cool grey color I decided that it would make a very nice cast shadow color.  I didn't really want to push the color count to 12, but sometimes you just have to do what you think will make your art better....sometimes less is better...sometimes more is.

I'm currently in the process of carving away the neon tubing and leaving the cast shadow area on the lettering, a shadow for the neon tubing and finally the sky to print.  Very excited to see this piece finally get completed....I've only been attempting this piece for over a year now.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #neon #icecream #lightandshadow #disneyland #californiaadventure #catchaflav #california #anaheim

Two new colors for the Racer!

Racer - 16x34" - 7 Color Reduction Linocut

Hi everyone!!  Been a bit busy lately....life seems to be getting more and more in the way of this blog, but I'm still trying to push ahead.  The Racer rollercoaster sign is almost finished!!  One color to go.  The past two weekends I've been busy printing the sky and the very dark blue area of the hanging flag banners along the bottom.

Each photo was taken at a different time of day so I apologize about the difference in colors on the two.  The sky is closer to that in the top picture than that very bright blue in the bottom pic.  I'm pretty excited about how this piece has turned out.  Registration has been very good and other than a little issue getting the blue to print over the shadow red in a solid tone...things have gone well.

When I first printed the sky color the red underneath really wanted to show through.  So I reprinted the first ones sky a second time and it still turned out a little questionable, but passable.  When I printed my second piece the same thing happened so I doubled up printing the blue.  I still wasn't 100% happy with it....so I tried a third time.  This was not a great idea and the outcome was pretty hideous.  I blotted both the first and second attempts heavily with newsprint to remove as much ink as possible.  The remaining pieces to the edition were all printed with a single blue layer.

I decided that being patient and trying again once the single layer of blue dried might work better for me.  Thankfully I managed to talk myself into that patience because when I printed the blue again later that week things turned out really, really nice.

 

Here is the edition drying after the second weeks printing of the blue and below is the block as I was carving away the sky.  FYI....that carving tool is somewhere around 1/4 inch wide....that sky took forever to carve.  Only black remains though!!

That's all for now!  I have to get my lunch ready for work and get ready for bed.  The Ice Cream reduction linocut has also been moving along nicely and I will try to create a post about it tomorrow night!

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #Racer #rollercoaster #Kennywood #Pittsburgh #PA #412 #amusementpark

This piece is just Racing along....

Racer - 16x34" - 7 color Reduction Linocut

(Color 3 - Red)

So since my last entry I've managed to get a good bit done on this piece.  The only major issue I'm experiencing with this piece is the amount of time that it takes to print each color.  I'm working with a brayer that is only 7 inches wide and only rolls out about 6-7 inches.  On a piece of this size that means it takes what feels like forever to ink the entire surface of the block evenly.

The first light grey layer took me 4.5 hours, the second layer took 4 hours and this layer took another 4.5 hours.  That includes times where I didn't necessarily ink the block evenly and the printed ink came out uneven with areas that didn't print well.  I would then just ink up those specific areas and run it through the press a second time.

(Color 4 - Shadow Red)

I managed to quickly carve the areas for the last color away and printed the fourth color a bit sooner than I probably would have.  I really like how this is turning out so far and I'm down to 3 colors.  I have the sky, a very dark blue on the banner flags and then a final black color.  Much like the other layers, this color took about 4.5 hours to print properly.  I guess that makes 17.5 hours of just printing for this piece.  That doesn't include the carving or drawing time which probably has me well over 23 hours worth of time spent on this piece....with 3 colors still to print.

(Detail shot of the highlighted and shadowed red areas)

(Here's the block on the press bed ready to be printed).

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reductionprint #racer #rollercoaster #kennywood #pittsburgh #pa #red

Deep Orange Ice Cream and Racer (updates)

 

Ice Cream - 20x16 - Colors 5 & 6

So far this piece is moving along much better than previous attempts.  I've stopped even working on the second attempt for the moment, but I think I will pick that one back up once I get this one finished.

When printing the 5 color which was the shadow on the building I forgot to print all the areas that I was supposed to print.  Luckily, I saved the remaining ink and was able to print the rest a couple days later.  Just this morning I printed a deep yellow (almost orange) as the shadow area that is on the cone itself.  I'm very pleased with it's look so far and the sequence of the yellows was actually one of the things that I learned off of the second attempt.

Registration of the colors has been very good except for one of the prints where it's off just slightly.  As I continue moving forward it shouldn't take long to see if that print will be included in the edition.

Racer - 16x34ish"

Since I wasn't sure of the deadlines for a couple of exhibtions that I usually submit to over the summer I figured that I'd better get the ball rolling on this piece.  I used all of the white ink I had just to print the first layer (light grey) and spent 5.5 hours printing an edition of 11 two Saturdays back.  Printing this piece is exhausting.  I honestly couldn't believe that it had taken me so long just to print 11 pieces.  I actually ran out of ink twice, but wanted to print 11 or 12 of these so I mixed up ink two more times to reach 11 and at that point decided that I was done.  I somehow managed to mix the same color ink 3 times and was disappointed I couldn't try again, but when you run out of ink to mix with....your done.

This is the first light grey layer for the Racer print.  I was very happy with how it turned out and immediately ordered some new ink so that when the time came I'd be able to print again.  Even though I purchased Ternes Burton registration pins and tabs to help with color registration I barely use them, but because of the size of this piece I figured it would be much easier to line up with their assistance.

This past Saturday I printed a darker, shadow grey and I'm very happy with it's outcome as well.  Registration is practically perfect thanks to the registration pins and I just finished carving the block so this piece is ready to print, but I'm going to have to wait until Saturday.  This second layer took an hour less to print so that was a nice surprice.  Only 4.5 hours printing instead of 5.5.  Again though, quite exhausting.  Next color up is a nice bright red which will then be followed up with a darker shadow red.

Can't wait to see how this one progresses.  Going to dive back into my Green Street linocut which I haven't touched in a couple months.  I was not overly happy with the last color I printed so I shelved the project until I felt ready to go back at it.  I guess today will be the day.  Wish me luck.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #icecream #neon #lightandshadow #racer #rollercoaster

Ice Cream, Magic and rollercoasters!!

So since my last update I've been working on getting things rolling on multiple fronts.  This past Saturday I forged ahead with my ice cream reduction linocut by printing a tan-like color for the building.  I didn't expect this color to actually get made if that makes any sense.  I was just hoping for a light orange like color and instead discovered that by mixing white and a "warm" yellow (which is similar to a yellow orange) that I could get a very nice cream color.....not at all what I expected, but very happy that I found this out.

 

The photo on the left shows my mixed color swatches sitting on top of the last printed yellow and the image on the right is the inked up block.  I promised myself that I was not going to partially ink any part of this project, but that didn't work out.  I'm low on white and the store in which I purchase my inks will not have any white back in stock until March.  I honestly don't have the time available to wait until March so I decided to save what I could and mix a smaller amount of this color which only allowed for a partial inking of the lino block.

This is the color proof from the inked bottom half of the linoleum block.  Even though I mixed up a smaller than normal amount of ink I did wind up having some extra at the end...which leads to a new project getting printed!!

Magic - 12x16(ish)

This linocut is based on a sign at Disneyland in California.  I do not yet have a definitive list of colors for this piece, but it's probably going to be high and definitely a pain.  There is a red, yellow, golden yellow,  blue and sky blue for this piece (5) plus a shadow for each (10).  That's does not inlcude the cream area for the "magic" as well as two shadowed areas for it (13) or the grey and dark grey (15).  So perhaps somewhere over 15 colors.  I wish I could pick easier subject matter.

The first color printed is the light tan/cream from the Ice Cream linocut.  This is a detail shot of the inked blocked.  The semi-rounded out areas are the lightbulbs located within the word "Magic".  I'm very hopeful for this piece as I think it will have a nice end result.

After I make my mess printing the cleanup takes considerable time.  I have to clean up the glass desktop surface that I mix and roll the ink out onto, but I also have to clean the roller I use as well as the block.  I spent about 1.5 hours and probably another 30 getting everything properly cleaned up.

One final thing of note is that I've really taken my second large step towards getting the "Racer" rollercoaster signage prepared for printing.  I carved the block a while back and today prepared the press for printing.

Due to the size of the piece I needed to create a new registration system of the block to fit into as well as placing Ternes Burton registration pins at the very top of the print bed.  I can admit that I probably went too big for this piece.  I wanted to push the boundary of my printing ability with the press and I think that even though it can print up to 17x35", that is probably just for a single color print.  I generally prefer 2 inch borders around my image, but there is only about an 1.25" on the top and bottom of the block.

I 'm going to have to get some masking tape to secure the registration tabs are used with the Ternes Burton registration pins and then I'll be able to begin this piece.  I'm very excited to get this thing going.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #reductionprint #neon #singage #printingprocess #printmakingregistration #Disneyland #CaliforniaAdventure #IceCream #MainStreetMagic #Racer #Kennywood #rollercoaster

New Ice Cream updates...I'm going to get this thing done one way or another!

Ice Cream - 20x16" (2nd Attempt)

So it's been a while since my last post and I always mean well and want to update this as much as possible, but with the holidays that just past which includes spending time figuring out gifts, buying gifts, spending time my wife and family, going to work and eeking out time to work on art...it's been difficult for me to get back to update this.

Anyhow, I hope everyones holidays and New Years went well.

Since my last update at the beginning of December, I have continued working on my various Ice Cream prints.  The original attempt that I tried is no longer in production.  The time that I was needing to invest in doing 3 versions of the Ice Cream was turning out to be just too much.  I still wasn't happy with it's progress and finally decided to call it quits on that piece.

The second attempt though is still being moved forward with.  The colors are a little out there, but I'm fairly happy with how it looks so far.  The picture above and the ones below are it's current stage.  I printed the first pink....light reddish color a couple weeks back.  Unfortunately, since I printed that piece I have only found the time to carve the block and not the time to print.  Hopefully I'll be able to move forward with the light grey that is to come next .

 

Here's a quick look at the current progress for the 3rd iteration of the Ice Cream print.

So far I'm two colors in...a very, very light yellow that is almost impossible to discern from the white paper and then a light yellow second layer which I just printed this past Saturday.  I promise to show a little more on my next update (which I will try to publish in the next couple days).

 

Color 2                              Color 1

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #IceCream #neon #sign #Disney #CaliforniaAdventure #yellow #testing #printingprocess

Ice Cream - Third time is a charm, right?

Ice Cream - Reduction Linocut - 3rd attempt

So yeah.....things were moving along with my 2nd attempt at the Ice Cream neon sign linocut that I was working on and then I started questioning some of the color placements.  A couple of the colors should've been switched with one another.  I really tried to not let that be a setback for me and tried ignoring these colors that were not exactly correct......I couldn't.

This piece is actually being done at the request of my wife and to be honest, I'd like it to be as close to perfect for her as possible.  Each time I've worked with this piece I've made small discoveries that at the time I wish I could have discovered a step or two previously.  So instead, I've restarted and applied that information to the next piece.

 Luckily, I still had the original graphite drawing I did of the sign and was able to transfer it one more time to a new piece of linoleum.  I also altered the shadows using references of photos online as well as pictures that I had taken myself and came up with what I feel is a decent rendition of shadows.  The last ones were just not really doing it for me, but since I didn't have actual an actual photo with a nice cast shadow I had to try and make them up.  I chose the easy way and just transferred the neon tubing areas of my drawing back onto the lino except I offset it's position.

This time around I spent a little more time studying photos or cast shadows and I'm much happier with what I've come up with.

In order to really speed up the process, I took my linoleum with me to my workplace and would work on it during break times.  I taped a piece of tracing paper over top of the graphite image so that it wouldn't get accidentally erased by my arm.  As I traced the drawing with a Sharpie marker I would discover areas that weren't very defined (the original drawing had already been transferred a couple times and wasn't leaving an easily visible transfer image).  I would make little notes all over the tracing paper indicating where I needed to double check with both the drawing and original photo.

The "glue" in pink was an area that I started to carve and then realized I had made a mistake.  Luckily, I had not completely the cut and was able to glue the piece back into place.  

One of the issues that I've been running into with this piece is that the colors weren't always being placed properly.  This is actually poor planning on my part.  Yellows are fairly transparent and if you aren't careful with how they are layered then disaster is close behind.  I try to mix a very small amount of white into my yellows so that they are less transparent, but this doesn't mean that previously printed colors aren't going to show up through the newer layer of ink.

This time around I decided that I was going to run colors test on each of the three different yellows that I used in the first two Ice Cream attempts.  The image above shows the three colors and their unaltered hues on the sheet of paper.  These colors are straight from the tube.

I also mixed each color with an equal amount of white to see how it would affect the value of the original color (1:1 ratio).  I also mixed that original color at a 2:1 ratio with white to see how much lighter it became compared to the 1:1 ratio.

After I mixed all the colors and made swatches of those colors, I inked up strips of linoleum and ran them through the press.  One set printed the darker three colors over the lighter three and then vice versa..printing the dark three over the light three.  Though the results of these color tests are fairly close, there are several areas where certain similar colors (ex. light yellow overlayed with dark yellow vs. dark yellow overlayed with light yellow) showed significant differences in the values printed.

I've already torn my paper for this piece and hope to start it very soon.  I'm excited to take another stab at this piece and hope that I've learned enough from my past mistakes that this time will leave me with a piece that I will be proud enough to offer to my wife.  =)

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #reliefprint #IceCream #neon #sign #Disney #CaliforniaAdventure #yellow #testing #printingprocess