California, here they come!

My contribution to Baren Forum Print Exchange #40 is officially out the door. Thanks to overnight express shipping it will arrive on time tomorrow afternoon. If I had time to spare there are certainly things I would have changed but all in all I am satisfied with it. Getting it done on time was a HUGE priority for me - much more important to me than getting it absolutely perfect - and so in this regard I am very pleased with myself.

Now I need a shower and some sleep. Maybe not in that order.

Not only was it unduly difficult pasting down the tissue paper drawing of my black plate, it was hard to carve. This may be the last time I do this with a reduction print. Little stray corners of paper kept getting in the way and snagged my blade, made the cut difficult to see, etc. I need some input as to why this was so difficult for me. Here's the block (tissue paper and all) with the black plate almost entirely carved and on the right is the black block fully carved and ready to go.

I had a hard time carving this second block. Not only was the tissue paper a mess but the wood itself was hard to work with. I am using maple which is a very hardwood but for some reason it splintered easily and behaved more like a softwood when I was carving the second pass (black plate.) I don't know what that was all about. I don't think the wood splintered as easily the first time around. I don't know if it was a result of the gum arabic used to paste the second drawing, the ink & oil used the print the first phase, or my imagination. Who knows. Survey says.....

....needs a little touching up before pulling the official edition. Dang that splintering wood! I had to carve the block down fairly deep and bust out the rifflers to smooth over the snags.

Finally it was ready to go though.

Audrey was very patient, allowing me to work out in the honeycomb all day (she wasn't in school today, poor baby)

and Noah as always had fun watching it come together.

Well, now what do I do with all my free time?

1 down, 1 to go

This is the first time I've ever drawn and pasted a subsequent phase of a reduction block and it was met with limited success. After drawing on one of yesterday's prints with a black sharpie, I copied the black areas onto a piece of tissue paper. Mine is always wrinkled and folded from being used in giftbags & boxes but it seems to work just the same. Then I coated the wood block with gum arabic and tried to paste my tissue paper on the block. Big mess. I had a really hard time getting the image to line up.

I think some of this is because the paper stretches during printing, it's (the paper) wet when I pull the prints, and a few other factors which cause the printed image to differ somewhat in size from the carved image. I knew going in to it that it would be impossible to get an exact match.

Still, it was harder than I had thought. I think there was something else going on that made it very difficult for me. Who knows, maybe just 'user error' - there could be a reason why I've never done it before: maybe no one recommends doing it. Later tonight I'll post my issues on baren forum to get their feedback on what went wrong.

Not all wrong, though as there is now a piece of paper containing the black areas of the image pasted onto my block. I'm not sure how it will all look when I carve it much less what's going to happen when I try printing but I guess we'll see soon!

no time like now

It was a rainy walk out to the honeycomb this morning but a good, productive day. After mixing the ink I ran one print

Hmmm....too dark. I removed half the ink and mixed in a big scoop of base extener to lighten it up a bit. And voila! Perhaps a little more blue than I wanted but I'm running out of time to be picky so here it is:

Now I'll carve a bit more tonight and print the black plate tomorrow evening. I've got my fingers crossed that everything goes as planned since I'm running right up against my deadline. Thank god for overnight postal service!

Black & White

After spending several days trying to make my drawing a successful one color print, I am throwing in the towel. A sign, as some of my college profs would say, of my lack of artistic ability. At this point, my practical side is kicking in and telling me to get on with it. So....I am doing a two color, one block reduction print with a black plate on top of a grey plate.

Interesting that I have such a hard time with black & white but feel more comfortable with grey scale. Again, I have teachers who would be chomping at the bit for a piece of this one....Here's the grey plate color sep. Ive traced it on tissue paper and will be gluing the tissue to my maple block tomorrow. More on all that later....

Exchange 40

After chaning my mind and scrapping my original print I am officially behind the 8-ball for my Exchange 40 submission. I'll bust it out as best I can though. I've decided to do a print of the Buffalo River at the Ponca low water crossing bridge in Arkansas. A few weeks ago I traveled there with family and friends to scatter the ashes of my Uncle. It was a profound trip for me in several aspects and I really want to memorialize the event. Of course I am fast approaching deadline and have drawn something which, if I had all the time in the world, would make a great 5 color print. I've knocked my drawing down to a black and white image and now will begin looking at how few plates I can get away with. I'm hoping to make this just a two plate image and think that might be realistic but won't know until I noodle it further. Here's the drawing. More later.

Easter Round 1

Saturday brought the first of our Easter celebrations. The Swiss Avenue Historic District had their egg hunt Saturday morning. The kids got way more candy than they needed and spent the rest of the day trying to sneak another handfull out of their baskets. It was fun for everyone; Brian and I always enjoy getting to visit with the neighbors - we live in such a great neighborhood. For as reluctant as I was to move to Dallas I think we found the most relaxed, down to earth corner of the city.

Now we're gearing up for the Old East Dallas egg hunt....