Moon moth

I’ve been working on some prints of the moon lately and as moths are night creatures I have been wondering about combining the prints. I have no time for actual printing so this is a combined Photoshop print, colours I don’t think I could ever achieve in real  life.
I tend not to use Photoshop much but as I am doing an Illustration course I think its time I really used it for the best it can do, which for me is combining images and playing with colours. So many ides and possibilities can emerge.

 

Moon moth, 2 prints combined in Photoshop

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..

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

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

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.

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.

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.

 

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

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.

Basic design and first cuts

Trials and tribulations…..

 

.. 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.

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.

Initial Sketch with Print Stages

The lino plate with a single black print of the lizard

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.

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