Into 2015 with Eel Print Trials

My first post to Print Daily 2015! I have spent a bit of time updating this blog with past prints. It’s useful for me to see how and if the work has developed. Apologies to anyone who subscribes to this neglected blog and received a deluge of posts .. hopefully it will all be a bit more regular from now on. I have given myself  a pretty strict work regime…for now anyway

I am playing with all sorts of printing methods at the moment and wanted to make a simple concertina book to practice a bit more simple bookbinding. I like eels. The story of their life cycle is amazing and worth a little book perhaps?

But to start with some sketches and a first couple of print trials.





Here are a couple of plates cut from card. I  made a couple of card plates for the moon project but they were not terribly successful. Now I have made up some of my own shellac which I think will help.





Trials with different weights of ink



A first folded print… more experiments to come.

Moth Print Development

I’ve spent a little time with the moths again… no joke ..
This time combining the two plates.







Hmm.. nice possibilities. These are just proofs on newsprint which prints up really well! Better sometimes than the expensive paper. That’s just how it is sometimes ..

Moth second plate

At last I have finished the cutting of the second plate.



The patterns are quite different from the first plate, as I want to overprint and see what happens.



I also cut a mask, using a test print from the first block. I can’t now remember why I I wanted to do this but I had written it down in my invaluable to-do book.
(Note to self: Good idea to add reason or give self some clue or other.)Anyway I hope I will remember when I start printing.
Test print of number two plate

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I was looking at the new plate and the cut-out print from plate one and thought how much I liked the isolated pink moth.



Some more possibilities are suggesting themselves.. sadly not the reason for the mask yet.



More soon..

Moth Print 1

Like Sue I am just back from hols. This time another inspiring visit to a favourite city Amsterdam. Time is short this week so just a simple moth design to try a few print techniques.

Some initial sketches to sort out a design that will be quick and versatile. 





A few further thoughts and starting to cut the base plate.

Chris the Frog

My Easton group had a wonderful day on Friday tackling a woodblock print. Their results were excellent, some even managing two colours which is some going for just a few hours.



A few stage one prints from the class.
Chris the FrogI had printed up a few variations of the Frog as a demo using the same very basic materials we would be using in the class, a spoon, a baren, computer paper, tissue paper, some cheap Japanese rice paper and basic acrylic printing inks.



The first plate.



Various combinations of paper and inking.



The frog is called Chris because I had unwittingly cut a rather nice letter C in one of the spots.. it seemed fitting..



In the garden there are still many tiny froglets around the pond fringes Mowing is a nightmare and very very slow. I have to carefully pat the grass to alert them and help the very tiniest ones to get to safety. The long grass must seem mountainous to them.. I rather know how they feel.



Here is one on the very tip of my grubby fingers.. I am wondering how they will survive the winter.

Frog colour roughs and plate 1

This is a quick frog woodcut I made for a demo at Easton.  



A few colour roughs to think about two colours.


 

I cut the block to the accompaniment of frogs singing from the herb bed..



Wood block plate 1.. A4

One Coot Finished

At last, a finished print with a  little hand colouring. There has been quite a lot of learning the hard way with this one. Patience is a virtue.



The large coot with 2  punky spiky haired chicks .. vinyl cut. Image 11 x12 inches

Coot 2 Progress

I am still playing with the coot and after a bit more cutting away I have another black proof.


I am hoping to make a few experiments with this and now have a blue green version and a couple of dark blue ones.





Coot Blue Lino 10 x11 inches
More to come :)

Coot Number 2

I have returned to the coot sketches and am planning another print to be a companion to Rook. I am not sure if or when I will be able to find the right sort of type so might just have to cut it myself. It would be good practice.

Black and white thumbnail.
So far I have made a rough proof and scribbled on it a bit with white chalk to  see what more I need to cut away. I made quite a few colour roughs but in the end decided it will just be black and white this time, like rook.
 
Inked up plate and first proof
It’s fascinating seeing the print emerge. It’s never quite how you imagined.

The Blue Hedgehog

On Saturday we went to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It is so many years since I was last there and I had forgotten how rich and wide ranging is the scope of the museum.
I found many more wonderful beasts from all over the world, but the best of all was the small blue Egyptian hedgehog.
We do love our hedgehogs but I had no idea that the Egyptians revered them as symbols of regeneration.
In the subdued lighting of the gallery the hedgehog has a certain mystery. The museum’s record, brightly lit and with its measuring scale and all the chips so evident is not quite so magical.

Fitzwilliam Museum photo
Faience hedgehog
Tomb 655 Beni Hasan Egypt
length 6.25 cm
width 3.75 cm
Twelfth Dynasty
Middle Kingdom
Date 1976 B.C. — 1793 B.C.
After a bit of research I found quite a few other  Egyptian Hedgehogs. Most surprising is the real and long eared Middle Eastern hedgehog.

This little chap is from Iran: photo Berkah.13.Kookherd from Wikipedia
A quick internet search shows that some ancient hedgehog figures do have long ears.This little faience amulet is from the Pelizaeus Museum  Hildesheim.

from the Global Egyptian Museum

My initial sketch of the short eared Fitzwilliam Hedgehog more as I saw it, in the tomb like low light of the museum display.
  
Then some sketches :
 
And then a quick reduction print:

The Blue Hedgehog

The little blue hedgehog on a windy moonlit evening with swaying palms. Reduction Lino image 6 x4 inches

Coot and Willow Print

The print I made last week, a continuation from my last posting on Beautiful Beasts here. There will be some more prints to come I hope.

 
I did a few initial drawings and tonal sketches for what will be a 3 colour reduction.


Various first stages and the lino block


Some final stages with various different colourways.

I like the image, but the printing needs work :). Maybe one really good one out of 6.




Coot and Willow..  image 6 x6 inches
I see the coot pottering about on the shoreline here, in and out of the willows. There is always a fisherman somewhere. The coot is large, the willow tree is small. That’s just how I wanted it.

Adders: The prints

It's more print yearly than print daily at the moment but one of my New Years resolutions is to get this blog up to date. I am writing this in Jan 2015 but back dating it to March.:)
These are the print developments for the adders


2 colour trial
 
3 colour trial.

The final print. 4 colour reduction. Hard work …
More about the print and its development here on my main blog. I do like adders

A Nadder Print.

I’m working on a lino cut this week and also trying to tie up all sorts of odds and ends that I have started in the last three months. Leaving things unfinished is a bad habit of mine as I rush on to the next exciting thing.

So, for this, it’s back to the adders.The old name was in fact a nadder but the “a” because attached.
I had got as far as some rough ideas a week ago.

And now I am just resolving one design. I’m working a little bit larger now and this one will be approx 11.75 x 9.5 inches. It needed some more working out and so I started with a rough and a tonal value sketch. I’ve reversed the image and redrawn the coils.

Re draw from first rough.

 
Tonal sketches for the adder lino.

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Two colour ideas for 3 col reduction. It will probably be very different in the end, but it’s a start.

…and starting to cut the block

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This is a vinyl block and I hope it will be a three colour reduction print. It may be less or more depending on how things go.