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.

Ewe & Eye

monotype, 4"x6"
Ewe & Eye

Sheep Monotype

4"x4", monotype

Working on tone and texture in my monotypes (thanx to Belinda's mentoring). 8-] As she says, it's just removing ink. Yeah, right. Like drawing is just adding ink. ;-j

More Mini-monos

Two more mini-monoprints, a shaggy goat

and Dolly, my woodcut sheep. Both are on my 1.5"x2.25" zinc plate, much smaller than they appear here. It's a fun size. 8-]
I like the squiggly technique on the goat -- fits the subject. I really forced myself to remove ink -- I walked away and came back so I could see it with fresh eyes. Glad I did.
I went with the fur on Dolly, but I could have removed more ink from the body. Also the background texture isn't quite what I wanted. I was going for lighter but I just got muddy.

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.