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 and Dragon Progress

I am, as always struggling with registration with my lino prints, but I have managed one print with a additional colour in good register.

 

I am going to try two more and some basic added colour.

The dragon is making slow progress, I am trying some ideas for the surface decoration, there is a big mess!

I like to think it’s creative. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

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 :)

Rooks are ready!

Well, the final prints of the rooks [Corvus frugilegus] group had to be done and it's always difficult to know what the outcome will be but I was pleased with the end result, particularly as I still have a printable image at the end of the reduction print of three colours - the rooks themselves.

 Most of the prints had a strong yellow background, only one was printed in blue - my favourite one of course! I was interested to discover that the Latin word  'frugilegus'  means food gathering and some of the  collective nouns for rooks include' parliament' and 'storytelling'....and seeing these prints together I can imagine them telling stories to each other.

The yellow field of rape in the background

The blue/green background which creates an interesting contrast

Close up of rook's feet

Watercolour and lino print, using the final image of the rooks.  I will develop this as I like the birds but think I would like to change the background both with colour and perhaps cutting out some of the strong lines which contain the image.......a  piece of work which has the potential to go on developing......

Rooks rattle you.......

My work on the lino cut of the rooks continues, cutting away the blue sky and then printing the yellow background.  It was seeing some black 'sooty' rooks flying  against  the vivid yellow background of a field of rape which gave me the idea for this image and I'm pleased with the contrast. However, as with all creative things, the unexpected happened as I played about with an experimental print......

Blue sky cut away to allow for the second printing of yellow

Second colour printed. The top left hand print was one which I did right at the end, playing around with the blue left over on the roller which I didn't want to waste. Of course, now I realise that I really like the effect and wish I had done more......

Just the rooks left now..... it's at this stage that I wish I had done a separate block for each colour so that I could reprint in different colours and do some more blue backgrounds. Another reminder of the perils of reduction printing. However, it does make me appreciate all the more the hard work and thought that goes into this creative process - it's probably one of things that you just can't understand until you've tried it yourself.

  

A quick hand print on Japanese paper of the final image of the crows. If nothing else, I'm still left with this but the next stage is to put the block through the press and see if my registration plate does the job.......

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 Print.

A few sketches notes

 

and a quick reduction lino print.

 

The Blue Hedgehog

  

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

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 the scope of the museum is.
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.

 

Hopefully a print and more sketches to come…

Rooks and reduction prints

 

 

 

 

As the rain falls outside I wonder how the lambs in Wales are coping but they have thick oily coats which will help and are no doubt  already accustomed  to the vagaries of the weather.  I'm sure I'll return to my sketches for print ideas in the future but in the meantime need to finish the rook print I started some weeks ago...... 

 

 

Small pencil sketches to help me work out the design and possible colours

The final sketch I have decided to use which is the same size as my lino block 30x20 cm

The next step is to work out the colours to use which takes some thinking about when doing a reduction print as it means you have to be very sure of what you're trying to achieve in the finished print. Once you've cut out a colour there's no going back. You also have to be spot on when aligning the block and paper for all the different colours which is quite a challenge and I suspect has reduced many a printmaker to tears......

 

Image transferred onto lino

 

 

Lino block after first stage of printing the blue sky.  Sides and top have been cut out.

 

 

The next colour will be yellow and will make a green hedge just behind the rook's head if all goes well. I made a paper mask to block out the rook's head as I'm hoping to keep part of the eye area yellow.  The white area of all the eyes can be cut out now but as yellow is the next colour to be printed I need to make sure the head is white at this stage or the bird would have ended up with  a green eye as the yellow goes over the blue. Not exactly complicated but time consuming in the planning stage.......

 

By the time of my next turn on the blog I hope to have this finished but as I said, there could well be tears before bedtime if my registration plate isn't good enough.

 

Reduction printing is quite a challenge and some people prefer to make a block for each colour which also needs to be planned very carefully and demands great accuracy when printing, but then again - nobody said it would be easy! 

Lambs and ewes....

This week I've been walking the hills of Wales, or at least one or two of them around Lake Bala which is right on the edge of the Snowdonia Park. The area is very beautiful and we were lucky enough to have good weather, not too hot and hardly any rain! The lambs and calves were enjoying themselves in the early summer sunshine and it was such a pleasure to sketch them, even if they didn't assist by standing still for long.....

 

 

Young lambs just doing what young lambs do and wondering why I was staring at them.....

 

Some of the ewes were a bit wary as I stood and looked at them but they soon became used to me and there were some wonderful characters there.  The strong shape of their heads and contemptuous looks reminded me of some interesting human portraits I've seen in various well known galleries.....

 

 

What do you think?!

 

 

This lovely lady seemed completely bored at yet another tourist staring at her!

 

  

but this mother and lamb were happily snoozing in the sunshine ......

 

Little lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee

 Gave thee life and bid thee feed.

 

Extract from  William Blake's poem The Lamb.

 

 

Tate Britain have a display of Blake's work on at the moment and I would recommend visiting if you can, as the colour of some of the pieces and the imaginative use  of line are incredible, and whether or not you are a fan of his work it will give you a fascinating insight into his life.

 

 

A quick sketch from one of the pieces on display - it's so useful to see original works and try to understand them by copying if you get a chance.  Just the exercise of looking again and again at a piece helps you to understand it more deeply and the physical act of drawing lines reinforces your knowledge - why not try it?