Tuesday, December 31, 2013

… and a few more….

A few more trials, colourways  and experiments with the White Hart.

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Probably the best print, with reasonable registration.

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I added a few gold leaves to this one.
It will be my P&L New Year Greeting.

I think I will cut the plate one more time and add one more darker colour before I am finished with it. The more I print the more possibilities come to mind … but I have to move on.

Friday, December 27, 2013

More Deer

I returned to the White Hart yesterday. However I realised  this piece of lino was damaged so is not printing well. It was a spare piece.. and now I know why. It’s so important to ensure the lino is dead flat or ink rolling and printing is a nightmare and this has a dip in the middle.
But I have printed some and will use them for experiments.

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I printed a few different colours of the first cut, then over printed the second cut with different colours again with very interesting and unexpected results.

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White Hart and Willows, reduction print 6 x 8 inches
A bit more playing around to come..

Sunday, December 22, 2013

White Hart: A Start

A couple of years ago when I first started exploring the local tracks  I saw a muntjac deer. I hadn’t seen many of these curious little deer before and it appeared out of the bushes up on the track by the railway line. It was very pale against the dark foliage like a little ghost. It delicately stepped away into the undergrowth again. I thought it was quite lovely. I made a very small note in my sketchbook at the time..along with a couple of terns.

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Muntjac deer… and terns July 2011

I remembered this pale image yesterday when I was wondering about another small lino to use up the scraps. And I then thought about the White Hart, the emblem of Richard II and an auspicious beast for the turn of the year. A sighting will bring good fortune. It seemed a good subject.

My lino cut cannot compete with the exquisite White Hart of the Wilton Diptych, Richard’s most beautiful portable alter piece, but I decided to use it as my starting point. I wanted to keep the familiar heraldic pose.

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First thumbnail

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Pencil Rough. I altered the front leg to make a better silhouette

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I altered the angle of the head to be more engaging.

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First cut of the lino and first test proof. It is going to be a reduction print so I have to be methodical and think about what  I am doing.

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More tomorrow and for the next few days, I think.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Starts and stops.

Just one of those weeks with constant interruptions. It’s just the time of the year I think.  For me, printmaking really needs some thought and is quite a slow process. It’s not yet as easy as just picking up a pencil or a brush. So progress on the dragon print based on the sketch of my lost ceramic piece is slow.

I made endless roughs and sketches and could not come to a conclusion. I know what I would  like to achieve  ( but I think that’s probably a bit of a mistake with printmaking) but am quite a way from that yet. So in the end  I just got started with some experiments and I hope something will emerge.

I have some basic cut out shapes using the easicut stuff so I can experiment with placing them at random and sort of “assemble” the image.

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Basic design and first cuts

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Trials and tribulations…..

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.. but I like this bit!

I always tell my students that if one square centimetre of a piece of work is Ok then it’s a success.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Lizard and Bird

I have some small offcut pieces of lino and while I am trying to work out the dragon print ideas I thought I would try out some different printing methods. With a Year of Beautiful Beasts coming too I thought a few small animal prints might be good. So I am going to use the offcuts to make a series of odds and ends.

I realised I have not really made the white of the paper work for me yet so sketched a design where the white would be a distinct shape.  It’s really playing with positive and negative and light, mid and dark tones. I tried different coloured mid tones. It is very interesting how it changes the emphasis.

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Initial Sketch with Print Stages

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The lino plate with a single black print of the lizard

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I am rather fond of this lone bird which of course was obliterated in the second cutting of the block. I can always do another.

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Lizard and Bird: pursued by Small Ancestral Pterodactyl
a reduction lino print : size 2.75x 5.50 inches

Thursday, December 12, 2013

…..More Pigs

The pigs are back with a few more printed up for cards..it’s that’s time of the year!

This combination started off as a bit of a mistake but worked out much better than I had imagined so I decided to make a few more. That, to me, is the joy of printmaking. I am never quite sure what I am going to get

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Blue pig

…..and then a few more colours…

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They are delightful.. even tho’  I say it myself.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

The Cherry Thief : First Proofs

When we moved here we bought a little cherry tree. Year one, it had 5 cherries. A crow hopped down from the roof one day and ate them all. I watched it carefully assess each cherry and leap up with an aim that was true and unnerving.  The crows great flapping black body almost engulfed the tree.  
Year two, there were maybe thirty cherries. I managed to pick 10 for us. The rest were stripped by our lovely thieving blackbirds. I had jotted down a tiny note for a print in my sketchbook.

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The note I made while sitting on the sofa and watching the cherries disappear.The blackbirds worked in pairs.

I had started this lino in the summer and was not too happy with it. It was too busy for one dark colour so I decided to jigsaw it. It needs some more work and some more thoughts about the colours and backgrounds but has possibilities.

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The jigsaw plate inked up and some trials.

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I wonder how many cherries we will have this coming year. Our blackbirds are very happy, healthy and legion!

Monday, December 2, 2013

A Few More Pigs

I printed some more pigs today. This time a yellow plate first then a circle of a deeper yellow, then what remains of the original plate in deep blue.

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Sunny pig: Image 3 inches square

I  now have a nice batch of about 20 cards. Some I printed directly onto the paper cut to size. It’s very tricky to get them right. Some I printed on different papers, trimmed them up and tipped them onto the card. I like both of the colour variations and there are many more possibilities.  I have learnt quite a bit about overprinting and quite a bit more about the virtues of being patient.

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Sunny pigs on my desk

 
and a Perfection of Pink Pigs on Dad’s old desk

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Pig in Jacket:Vinyl Reduction

So here is the pig again, this time a tiny vinyl block just 3 inches square. I am planning a reduction print of 4colours. And wanted it to be quite simple.

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Drawing on the Vinyl
I had roughly thought about the colours and jotted them down. I then went over the main lines with felt tip, because the pencil will disappear, and starting to cut away for the areas that will remain white.

I made a simple registration plate and started the first colour.

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Pink for ears, nose jacket collar and trotter.

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I am trying to print quite a few  because this will be a reduction and I am finding my success rate is a bit low.

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Third and fourth colours were varied both in success and in colour. The more times you print the more the chance for errors.

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Four colours, which I think is probably a little too many for something this size.

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Four colours, the red colour printed through a mask: Very fiddly.
The images are 3 inches square

I hope to get 10 useable prints in all which is not too bad! It has taken two days in all. I am sure I will get quicker!