Long week

Having taken that workshop over the weekend, this will be a long week, since I didn't get quite so much relax and do nothing time the last few days as I normally would. That isn't a bad thing, but I am sure I will be feeling it as the week progresses. Today's photo from the workshop results is basically different ink and papers with the self-portrait image. It was a lot of fun for me to see how the image would show with a few variables thrown in. Black and white is always nice, but sometimes color, or off-white paper really sets everything off.

I just compared this to the image from yesterday, which is actually the fourth image from the left, and in yesterdays, the color of the paper is totally missing, and I didn't do any processing of the photo besides cropping it, which is something I find interesting. I wonder if it is the contrast with the other images that gives the paper its proper color, or if some auto-adjust happened.

Finished, but not ready for work tomorrow.

Well, I am finished with my two day workshop, and today I did manage to finish the self-portrait shown here. I have it in black, which will eventually link, as I don't think the red on sage colored paper really shows the color of the paper. I printed up my other two images as well, also in a variety of colors, but did not get a start on a fourth image, other than a preliminary sketch. I was worn out around four, with two more hours to go, so I printed a few more images, but spent the rest of the time socializing and helping to clean up and whatnot. I can say I am pleased with the images, and may very well continue playing with this technique, though I am a bit concerned as to where I will do the carving, at least until it gets warm, since my living room is carpeted, and I doubt I want to try and remove linoleum chips from the carpet. It was definitely a fun class, and if you are interested in a relatively low tech printmaking technique, then I would suggest such a class, as you don't really need much in the way of special equipment. Oh well, time to wrap up and hit the sack.

Exhausted at the end of day 1

It has been so long since I spent an entire day focused on something like art making, I forgot just how exhausting it can be. The flamingo and lava lamp motif frequently showed up in my college printmaking and I could not resist the urge to bring them back. This is the first three stages, and the third may be the final, of this particular image. It is fun, and my birds can't help but appear sinister, though I don't recall ever being traumatized by Hitchcock's film. I took a photo of all three as I think it gives a nice overview of how things change during the carving of the block. I am hesitant of taking too much out in the beginning, so I always know the first is not likely to be my last, but with each additional removal I tend to focus on one area, then print to see how it works as a whole, before moving to the next. Of course this is probably slower, and I use a lot more paper and ink, but I like the variations, and changes. Someone mentioned in class that by doing this, I always have at least one image I may like, before I remove too much surface and ruin the piece. I guess tomorrow I find out if I end up doing that, though this process seems to be easy enough that I could do it at home, if I were careful, so theoretically if I don't do it in class, I have plenty of time to mess things up on my own.