Work in progress

Workn'

Got these three roughed in. Trying to decide if I like it the way it is.

Studio

Carving . . .

Progress

36"x36"  Sorry for the bad cell phone pic. I've been putting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour in on this 6 days a week since June 1. Time to stop slacking and start carving, summer's almost over . . . 

Head

Started on a new 36"x36" block, which would be the largest to date. It'll be another Caleb and Jacob image. There's a lot of carving to do on this block—this is a detail of Caleb's face, approximately 6"x7".

Godson/Brother

Small print of Jonathan and his son, Andrew. I never know what to do with certain images from my cell phone that I want to paint/draw/make with. The image reference on this one in particular was a bit troublesome because it seemed so "typical"—smiling, etc. But the carving seem to solve for the predictability of the pose, at least for me. Anyway, what may have been the most interesting experiment tonight was printing on the shirt I was using for a rag. 

Studio Randomness from the past week

Headphones, J+C - Test Print

There are a few minor tweaks I want to make. Most noticeably carving into the CAPE COD type a bit so that it is not as bold—only some subtle marks though. Overall this one was a blast to do, I hope to print a run of 3-5 prints and then one or two passes on a few paintings. 

My longer goal is to find a way to preserve the linoleum so that it keeps long enough for me to use for a few years. Wood block would be a more stable approach, but the canvas backed linoleum gives me a malleable enough surface to burnish through onto the wooden panel paintings.

Now I'm going through my cell phone looking for the next image to make a carving out of.

Taking shape

A little more

Slowly

Coming along slowing, hope to get more studio time in this week.

Reading Print - 1st Pass

First pass at this little print, the mid tones are too dark so I'm going to go back in and carve out a little more to lighten them up. Printed 7-9 prints in sketch books and one on a single sheet of paper, I'm probably applying too much pressure when printing as the fine lines get lost—hopefully I'll find the right touch tomorrow when taking another swing at it.

2 WIP Prints

Two in-progress prints, trying to get the smaller one completed for a crit this upcoming Friday. The larger one I'd like to have done in mid- April. I've got a painting or two I want to try transferring it to.

An Arm

A little progress on the big Caleb and Jacob block. Hoping to really get after it this weekend.

Moleskine Lino

Paint_Print

Finally took a pass at printing on top of one of the large paintings. Some of the panel seams and random paint drips resulted in sporadic patches where the ink did not transfer. Overall the result was appealing enough to keep experimenting with it. Printing on the painting got me thinking about mixing and moving paint around . . . it's been almost a year since I picked up a brush! 

Family Dinner Pano Print

The complexity of this one might have proven to be too much. While certain aspects of the composition and rendering work, other areas are far too ambiguous to read well. Maybe that's okay. The sketchbook crops are interesting to me, I'd like the entire print to be as well. Might go back in and carve more on this one.

Carvin'/Printin'

A 3'x1' block depicting a family dinner. Getting close to completing the block.

Took a quick look at printing some of the smaller blocks on one of the panel paintings. Interestingly enough burnishing trough the back of the block seems to provide enough pressure to transfer the ink. Next up will be an attempt at printing the large block of Jacob and Caleb on another painting.

Another Small Lino

This image got a bit fragmented and lost — the subject matter is Caleb in front of a CAT backhoe. The complexity of the image was hard to represent at this scale, but it'll make for a great large print at some point this spring.