White Line - Carving Continues

Another couple hours of work this morning.  I'll get back to it this afternoon.

BTW, I'm battling my way thru my supply of baltic birch.  It's rather chippy.  I'd gotten used to shina, which I much prefer and will go back to when these blocks are used up.

chip between ribbon and gingerbread cookie

White Line - Carving

Cartoon transfered to block

Starting to carve

Slow going, but I'll be able to start printing the tree as soon as it's carved.  Then I'll finish carving the window area.

White Line

Block is stained and when it's dry I'll transfer the cartoon.  I've decided to do a white line woodcut and ink it up and print it in two passes.  This is pretty much what I do when I tap in colors and print at once, but this will be more like carving two blocks.  I'll still have to take care with alignment.

Tempus fugit.  Sure don't want it to frangit!  ;- j

Loscon Art Show 2011

I've got a booth in the art show again this year.  Nothing's carved in wood, so to speak, but this is what I'm thinking of taking:

I lay the pictures out on my bed, which happens to be almost exactly the size of a double panel in the art show, to get some idea of what to take.

Some regulars, like the airships, printmaker and paleo-critters, but there are some new-to-Loscon pieces this year:  the Bookkeeper and Anasazi Bobcat (both zinc etchings), Pigasus, Foggy & Umi's Tears.

It gets a little cluttered with all the bid sheets attached to all the pieces, but that's the nature of the beast.

Art Gallery Bio

This is my bio sheet for the Santa Clarita Artists Association Gallery, opening this Black Friday at the Westfield Valencia Town Center.  8-]  It's a store front that's been empty for some while and the town has decided to let the SCAA use it for a gallery until a paying customer comes along.  Now that's a deal!

I've got 3 pieces in the opening show: 

Mid-Winter Night

Tay and the Night Visitor

Paleo-Horsefly

Here's a link to the SCAA website:
http://santaclaritaartists.org/

A Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Art Show and Artist's Reception will be celebrated on Monday, December 12th from 4 - 8 p.m. City and Community Representatives will be invited.  The SCAA will also present a “Spirit of the Arts” award to the Westfield Town Center Mall for its support of the Visual Arts. The ceremony and reception are free and open to the public. There will be musical entertainment, along with Wine and Hors D'oeuvres.

Still More Messing

I really must stop messing with the design and start carving.  I'm not sure what I think of the addition of garland around the window.  I think it actually detracts.  Or it might balance the color.  But which?

I think I can get away with carving 2 blocks.  One for the green and one for the black, with the ornaments tapped in.  I'll have to see if that's practical.

carve

Working on composition balance now.  This is what it'll look like on the 9"x12" block.  It looks like crap because I overlay images in PageMaker.  I'm only interested in the placement of image and white space here.  The tree comes a little past the center of the block, but the window is a more dynamic image.

I've decided against the garland.

Huh.  I've just noticed the center of the window is the center of the card. 

print

Can't forget what's mirror and what's not.  Keep an eye on the castle.  ;- j

Card will be more like 4.25"x7.75", but I'll keep this balance.

Crossroads and Connections

I went to see the opening of a fiber art show last night because I know one of the artists, Lauri Mraz.  Crossroads featured in the notice is her work:

Imagine my delight to find that connected to this gallery was the studio of a fellow printmaker, Sonia Romero from She Rides The Lion on Etsy:

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/SheRidesTheLion?ga_search_submit=Search&ga_search_query=she+rides+the+lion&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade. 

We know each other thru Printsy, a team of printmakers on Etsy, but we had never met in person.  That was a pleasant surprise.  8-]

You can check out Sonia's website here:  http://www.sheridesthelion.com/

And check out the Printsy blog here:  http://printsy.blogspot.com/

Xmas Card - Colors

Working on colors and motifs.  I may need 3 blocks to do this:  one for the green tree, one for the ornaments, with tapped in colors, and one for the window.

I don't want to go to the trouble of erasing all the ornaments, but there'll be a 3rd block with just the ornaments and the present in the mouse's hands.

Ok, here's the bw version minus the tree:

I can make a stencil mask for the tree when printing the window, then mask the window when printing the ornaments.  A second block can be the tree minus the ornaments.

Working on block size now.  Has to match well with the required card size.

Pastel Sketch

Working on some pastel sketches.  How big can the mice get and how small can the castle get?  I think the castle has to be a tad larger.  Maybe the mice have to be a tad smaller.

Mice don't look too bad size-wise.  Castle might get a little bigger.  (I can really tell I'm playing now.)  ;- j

Tighter Sketch

Christmas card sketch - tighter.

Might even just give a hint of a curve to the window and make it even tighter. Have to see. Currently I'm googling xmas trees and ornaments and cartoony mice for inspiration.


I'd like to use some color, either tapped in or using two blocks.


I like tradition ornaments, old-fashioned ones like dried fruit and nuts, candy canes, gingerbread cookies. Another possibility is ornaments to highlight people's hobbies, or devices. Not enough room for everyone's tho, so maybe not. Lights, candles. Lots of ideas to consider.