Here It Is 8-]

photo


scan

Julie, Mistess of Science

Color is closer to photo.

Almost there

Had to quit -- horrible tension headache. Didn't stop and stretch often enough! But it's almost there.

MOS in Progress

Julie, Mistress of Science, Julie's xmas present, commemmorates her MS in Physics. I'm attempting to layer color a la Belinda's instruction. It's a challenge. ;-j

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.

A Turkey of a Site ;->

My paleo-gobbler can be seen, along with other Fall Exchange prints, on the FourOceansPress site:

http://www.fouroceanspress.com/archive_fall_2007.html

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.

Paleo-Gobbler Print

Paleo-Gobbler in yellow ochre water-based ink, with accents in red and black.

The block needs a little more carving to open up some lines that swelled with first inking. Pretty much there tho.

Paleo-Turkey

this is a faux print (i.e., mirrored and grey-scaled)


this is a scan of the block

Fall is not the turkey's favorite season. The block is not very good. Kept chipping across the grain. I'll have to find out what this is so I can avoid it in future.

Turkey still needs a little detail.

Paleo-Gobbler

My paleo-gobbler for another fall exchange. This one's got me giggling. I've taken half the turkey jokes out but it still strikes me as funny.

Fall's the time of year when every turkey has to keep looking over his shoulder. Even paleo-turkeys. ;-}

A Pile of Leaves

This is the one shown being pulled in the previous post.


Red skies take warning.


Copper skies.


This one's a double -- I pulled two different prints off this plate.


Night Fall. This one's my entry in the autumn EAST challenge on Etsy.

Most of these can be seen in detail in my etsy shop: http://ellenshipley.etsy.com/, if anyone's interested. 8-]

Spiral Dance

Here's a fallish-looking leaf spiral monoprint. The plate just gets richer the longer I ink and print. 8-] I love monoprints with stencils (and leaves).

A Good Day in the Print Lab

One of many monoprints I pulled today, playing with leaves and spiral stencils. This particular print is a ghost, generally paler than the first pass.

Fabric on Ground

Ran a zinc plate thru the press with fabric on the soft ground, and I got a pretty good impression, but I didn't etch it long enough. 4 minutes. Should have done 8 at least. I'll try printing it again today -- I was rushed on Monday at the end of class. But if I don't like it I'll re-etch it.

Don't know if I'll just run anothe piece of fabric/soft ground thru the press, or what. Have to see what Jim thinks.

Ti22 full size url

Ti22 -- recarved image

recarved for a sharper image

Titanium, atomic number 22, is light, strong, lustrous and resistant to corrosion, even in sea water. It is a silvery-white metal and can be alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium and other elements to produce many lightweight alloys. It is used in everything from spacecraft to dental implants, and because it can burn in both air and nitrogen, it makes great fireworks.

Titanium was discovered in England in1791 and was named for the Titans of Greek mythology. I took my inspiration from the Titan allusion and have displayed the most famous Titan, Prometheus, who brought fire to mankind, against the wishes of an angry Zeus.

Here is Prometheus with a high-tech, titanium robotic arm, holding aloft a burst of fireworks. As serendipity would have it, fireworks can look remarkably like a spray of fennel blossoms, the seed of which Prometheus hid fire in to sneak it past the Gods.

No good deed goes unpunished, but that’s another story.

Ti22 More Colorways

magenta, black oil based ink


yellow added to magenta; black


more yellow added to magenta; black

Red was rolled on, black was tapped in. Interesting and more like I envisioned the image, but now that I've worked with both, I think I like the yellow ochre water based inks better. The colors look more antique.

Titanium 22 -- Periodic Table Project

Ti 22 block


Ti 22 test print -- yellow ochre


Ti 22 test print -- yellow ochre & black

Ti 22 -- another variation

A couple lines need a little more tweaking, and I need to fine-tune the coloration. But it's almost done. 8-]

Now I can work on the text, explaining just how Prometheus with a robot arm holding fireworks relates to the element Titanium. ;-j

The Dog Ate My Artwork... ;-/

slightly chewed Foggy print

So we were on vacation -- a train trip to the midwest for our 35th anniversary -- and some of my prints fell into range of my paper loving dog, Loki:

Loki does love his Starbucks

I think it only got chewed in passing -- he was actually after a packet of Southern Winter/Northern Summer Solstice prints (the backyard series)! Luckily they were still in their plastic envelope and my son was able to rescue them before any damage was done. But Foggy wasn't so lucky.

Now that wouldn't be such a problem -- except: that particular print was up on ETSY and it had just sold! Yikes!

I didn't have many Foggy prints on hand, and none of the others were as nice as the one in my shop. So I printed up some more, and one or two of those look similar to the chewed one.

As soon as they dry I'll send one off to my patient patron. And hey, she gets a great story to go with it, right? ;-y

Ti-22 Working Sketch (reverse image)

Here's the working mock up for my Titanium block in the Periodic Elements Project. I took a re-assignment. Glad to play. 8-] The Ti and the 22 will be worked into the greek key bands. I printed out a bunch of them to work on colors today. I'm thinking I'll go with red and black and grey, but we'll see.

Titanium is named after the Greek Titans, of which Prometheus is the best known. He stole fire from Zeus and brought it to mankind, concealed in a fennel stalk, for which he was punished -- chained to a rock to have his liver eaten by an eagle, only to grow back at night for the next day. Gotta love those Greek gods.

Titanium is a whitish metal-du-jour that shows up in everything from paint to the space shuttle, and even fireworks. Or in this case, as a robotic arm holding aloft fireworks (which also looks a lot like a fennel stalk).



Tweaking the composition.

Woven Backgrounds

I like how the summer & winter woodblock print came out. I'd like to try throwing weaving into more of my prints.







Broken lozenge twill would be a good choice I think. Otherwise known as broken diamond twill.

Here's a detail from my Y1K coat in broken lozenge twill. It's a pleasing pattern. Perhaps too repetitive?

Of course summer & winter is infinitely variable, and I could stick with it for awhile.

This sampler (front and back) was woven in varieties of summer & winter mimicking Fair Isle. Greyed out they'd make good background, and otherwise they'd make good pattern texture. 8-]

Foggy

Foggy, 4"x6" print on 5.5"x7.5" paper

The fog comes on little cat feet..., Carl Sandburg.

Foggy was the definition of scaredy-cat, which is probably why he lived to nineteen, far out-distancing his more adventurous sister, Smoggy, and later, Stormy. He knew when to make himself scarce, but then he was there again, creeping back into view.
I started carving a block with a Summer & Winter weaving pattern -- so named because when you flip it over, the dark/light color pattern is reversed to light/dark -- called Cat Tracks. (Summer & Winter weave coverlets were popular with the Colonial Americans, who presumably reversed them seasonally.)
I used the alcohol/baby wipe technique to transfer a printer image to a Baltic birch plywood block, which was more than adequate to carve the detailed weave pattern. I used Daniel Smith ochre water-based ink and a baren to hand-print the block onto cream-colored Arches paper.
I then carved a second block and tapped on a grey mixture of Daniel Smith black water-based ink and an opaque white etching ink, in a splotchy manner to mimic fog. I used a baren to hand-print an off-center image of the cat, as if it is just drifting into the image.
This is my SWNS07 exchange print.

Summer & Winter Weave

cat tracks

Summer & Winter Weave -- yellow ochre water-based ink, 4"x6" on cream Somerset, 5.5"x7.7"

The fog comes on little cat feet. -- Carl Sandburg

Summer & Winter -- Baby Wipe Transfer

hp deskjet 5150 print transfer onto Baltic birch plywood block using baby wipes (reconstituted with alcohol). Rubbed from the back, wetting the paper.

Medieval Tiles - Water-based Ink

4"sq. griffin

I like the wood marks. They give an energy to the print. This is an Irish tile.




3"sq. unicorn



3"sq. deer

Daniel Smith burnt umber water-soluable ink on Somerset. There may be a touch of yellow ochre as well. I was going back and forth between the two with the blocks. Gave me some lovely browns and golds.

Griffin Tile

griffin tile 4"sq. faux print


griffin tile 4"sq. block

Another tile block. This one is 4"sq. Large open spaces work well on fabric.