Blocks for the Poppies II (Triptych)

Blocks for the Poppies II (Triptych)

Originally uploaded by Serendipity Artist

I recently finished the blocks for the second print in the Poppies triptych. I’ve been traveling a lot lately, so I’m not as far along as I would like to be on these prints. Up next I need to finish the final three blocks for the last print, grind pigments, do some testing, and start printing.

 

Poppies Triptych – Testing Print I

Poppies Triptych – Print I (test)

Originally uploaded by Serendipity Artist

This is a test print for print I of the Poppies Triptych. The test is basically to double-check for alignment issues. The colors are a bit off and I need to make some further tests later on to get the color exactly right and consistent for each print in the triptych.

This week I am carving the blocks for print II of the triptych, but I won’t get as much done as usual because I am off to Milwaukee for a few days to attend the Art Librarians Society of North America – Midstates Chapter meeting. Can’t wait to see the Milwaukee Museum of Art.

 

Sketch for poppies triptych

Sketch for poppies triptych

Originally uploaded by Serendipity Artist

My earlier print, “Poppies by Moonlight” was actually a sort of test print to a larger print. At one point I was thinking I would make a really large print, but decided it looked more interesting as a triptych. I still have a few minor adjustments to make in the design, but it’s pretty much there.

 

Letterpress workshop at the ARLIS/NA Conference in Indianapolis

Yesterday I attended a workshop on letterpress printmaking as part of the Art Librarian’s Society of North America’s Annual Conference in Indiana. I learned a lot, but since it was only a day-long workshop, much of the work was already prepared for us. To see more photos see http://tinyurl.com/cla3vx.

Besides an appreciation for the letterpress process, the workshop gave me some ideas about printmaking in general including how I might overlap parts of images for some interesting effects. It was also refreshing to do a group project where all of us contributed to the whole. In fact, on my way to this workshop I rode with a woman who, because she is unable to have a studio, creates artwork by setting up certain parameters and giving them to others to create her work. She is currently working on a project in which she gives participants a kind of table tent with the outline of a human figure and asks participants to create a self portrait on it and mail it back to her. She even gave me one of them to do.

 

Boat sketch – relearning Adobe Illustrator

Here is a sketch of my upcoming print. I invested a lot of time this past week relearning Adobe Illustrator. I learned illustrator back in the late 1980s – so long ago that I had to learn how to use a mouse in the class! I am amazed that I actually remembered some things, but there was a lot of banging my head against the wall and spending hours trying to figure out something that ended up being very simple to do. I think the time I spent will be worth it though, as it makes design adjustments much easier to do and to visualize.

 

New Print – Poppies by Moonlight

My apologies for not posting in such a long time. I’ve been trying to balance family life (read busy teenager) with work life (sometimes even a librarian’s life can get hectic). I have continued working on my printmaking, but at a slower pace. The blog was necessarily put on the back burner for a while. 

Here is the latest print that I just finished last weekend. This is a four-color print done in Moku Hanga style using 3 blocks. The upper flowers were done on one block with the yellow carved first. I then reduced the block  for the orange. The lower red flower was done on a smaller separate block. I did this so I could use two smaller blocks for the flowers instead of one larger block, but I don’t think it was worth the hassle of trying to get the registration correct. The light green background was carved on a new block and printed next. This light green block was then reduced for the dark green foliage. 

The print measures 8.5 x 11.25 inches on 12 x 14.5 inch Nishinouchi paper using hand-ground Japanese pigments. I had not ground my own pigments before and found it to be very satisfying.I used a mortar and pestle to grind the colors that I purchased from the Baren Mall. I wore a mask so as not to breathe in any of the pigment particles. I also wore gloves. The colors are non-toxic, but I would rather take precautions anyway. The colors came out quite brilliant.

 

A couple of new prints

Here are a couple of new prints I have been working on.

This one is a simple one block print done on handmade Indian paper that I bought in Pune at the Handmade Paper Institute.

And here is a guy from the Handmade Paper Institute giving me a demo of paper marbling. We went to the H.M.P.I. not knowing what we would find and the people who worked there were very generous gave us a personal tour. It was fascinating. They made the paper from recycled rags and discarded books.

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Here is a test print of another print I am working on. This was going to be the second white paws print, but I added a boarder with the sanskrit word for peace. I like the way this one is working better than the first white paws, so I will be redoing the first print in this style. There will be three prints in all for this series – Peace, Light, and Love (this one might change). These happen to be the names of my husband and his two brothers (Prashant, Pradeep, and Prem). I hope they don’t mind.

 

Latest Dog Print – more lessons learned

Happy new year to everyone.

I’ve been back working on my India stray dog series. I am working on three simultaneously – all of a beautiful dog with distinct white paws that I met outside of a restaurant in Pune. Here is a snapshot of the keyblock and a test print on copy paper.

I carved this on shina plywood, which is not the best material for making the key block (i.e. the black line block) because it can chip when carving out thin lines. I bought some Quick Wood, which worked pretty well at mending some of those chipped spots. I think I may be ready to move on to carving my key blocks in cherry which is more suitable for detailed carving. I used a Sharpie marker to draw on the key block and I really liked the way it helped me see the thickness of my lines better when carving, allowing me to create what I hope is a more sensitive line.

I also ordered a new carving tool – the bullnose chisel. I didn’t think this tool would be all that useful, but have found it to be invaluable. I use it almost as much as my hangi to (knife). I have been using a shallow u-gouge for clearing areas, but the bullnose chisel clears a lot more efficiently. Here is a photo of it. This is actually photographed upside down so you can see the bevel. It is used with the bevel side toward the wood.

I’m learning to have a lighter hand with the baren. As you can see in the test print there are some thick edges in the shadow areas. I found that a lighter hand on the baren eliminates these and makes for a more uniform printed area.

The most important lesson that I am beginning to take to heart in this process is patience and learning to trust my intuition.

 

The bench is a success

It isn’t exactly fine art, but it’s functional. P. says he can now meditate without his legs falling asleep.

Now I have to get to work on my Zen box which I would like to exhibit at the UM School of Art & Design Annual Staff Show. Submissions are due in two weeks, yikes!

 

Being One with the Wood

All week I’ve been working on what was supposed to be such a simple little woodworking project. P. asked me to build him this mediation bench. It looked like something I could accomplish with my limited skill set and tool set. Looking at the plans I figured I could whip it off in a couple of hours – max. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get the beginners luck that usually comes with being a novice. Here’s just a few of the things I’ve learned with this little project so far:

• How to saw straight with a skill saw – (a.k.a. table saw envy)
• How to plane not-so-straight cuts made by a skill saw
• How to plan ahead and buy more wood than I need so that when I don’t saw straight I can start over
• How to read directions and believe them – even when they tell you to use a countersink drill bit and Lowes doesn’t carry countersink drill bits
• How to order tools online and wait . . .
• How to use a countersink drill bit – you have to drill down further than you think
• How hard it is to clamp something without it slipping, getting in the way of the drill, or denting the wood (this took 30 minutes to figure out)
• How, even when the holes are in the right place I can still have trouble screwing in the screws and never really learn why

So there it is and I’m not done yet, but hope to be soon. I’m thinking maybe another couple of hours – so maybe I’ll have something finished to show in another week or so!