Sketch ~ Howliday Moon

Generic still.  Want to try Oscar, a better Gabby.  Size them better.  A better Meechee.

Size is variable.  I can have more trees on the side, more stars in the sky.  Then I can make it match the card shape.  Probably longer, so I might add a dog or two more (or just more trees).

Starting to draw SH dogs.

Snowflakes are Dancing

I got tired of drawing snowflakes, even stick figure ones, so I cut out some pics of snowflakes and I'm moving them around on pastel backgrounds.

That edge-on snowflake is looking more like a flying saucer than a dancing snowflake tho.  ;- j  Needs a little work.

Not sure about the copses of trees yet.  The seemed like a good idea.  I'll work on placement.

~*~

Trees bigger in the foreground, points of the snowflake point to the castle and the edge-one snowflake (illusion of movement).

I might even put actual swirly lines for movement; have to think about that one.

One suggestion on fb:  make foreground trees darker, which reminds me to make the middle ground trees lighter, for that distance-is-greyer effect.  The castle, however, has to pop.

And I might move the castle just a smidge toward the middle so it's in the frame more.

Haven't moved the castle yet, but I've messed with the trees a bit more.

Made the image narrow, more like the card dimensions (actually longer and thinner -- get exact dimensions before I carve!).

Midwinter Night

Woo and hoo! The xmas cards came off really well. Classy, if I do say so myself. ;-j And in addition to the cards, Schuyler House also bought 20 prints, so Christmas came early this year. 8-]

We had miscalculated the actual size of the cards however, and some judicial digital alterations had to be done to the image: the tree was elongated, with mix and match and cut and paste branches added to the top, as well as extending the sky. But I think it looks all of a piece.

VistaPrint.com did the cards, and I think they did a nice job. We chose a matt linen finish. I'd definitely do this again.

Castle -- Kozo

Print on kozo.

Castle Xmas Progress

Schuyler House Xmas card progress -- faux print. Getting there.

Castle Card In Progress

Castle Christmas Card

Well, it can be fixed. I got the d*mn castle backwards. It's not too heavily carved yet, so I think I can transpose the wall section to the other side. This is the amended image with the castle switched. I think I can do that.

I am so p*ssed.

Christmas Card Template

Working on Christmas cards for Schuyler House. This is a section plucked out of a previous woodblock to work with. I was thinking of going landscape but then when I googled a mess of Japanese winter woodcuts I discovered that the majority of them seem to be in portrait, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'll be adding a tree over to one side, subtracting the sheep and adding a deer or three. Also opting for a uniform sky, probably dark blue fading to light blue, hanga fashion. Don't think I'll be doing it hanga style however. Probably black and white with watercolor. Have to see how it developes.

Happy 33rd Anniversary

castle schuyler house 9"x12"

I carved this over the summer. In fact, I had started to google likely castles to use when Bill discovered the Norman Keep at Castle Cardiff and tweaked it. Perfect! The trick has been to keep him from seeing it before the 9th. I'm fairly confident he won't look in here. ;->

Woodcut on Baltic birch (and was it a bitch!). I utilized the direction of the grain for the cloud action, but it fought me all the rest of the block. I'm wondering if Belinda DelPesco's technique of staining the block then using polyurithane wouldn't have helped with all the chipping. I may try that for the next one.