A busy week in Artlandia - getting right down to business - the 5 blocks/plates a week mini-project continues with pieces #11 - 15:
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| block #11 |
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| "life-scale," an inverse of a block from a month ago - I think it went better the second time around, and a very good likeness, if i do say so myself ;) |
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| block #12 |
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| block #13 |
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| It took a few tries to figure out how to go
from plate to block, but on the 8th try - success!(The others wiped off with soap and water,
so no block material went to waste - thumbs up!)
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I took the existing aluminum plates and (after some trial and error) printed them into a block and carved them. Part of my reason for doing this is that I have come to the realization (/accepted) that right now, the editions from the aluminum plates are going to be very small ...but if I carve the images into a single relief block, I can more easily print them and have more...
I can't take credit for this idea. Printing cards in a sheet follows phase 8 and making the right choice easier as well as trying to build it like what it is - I'm inspired by 15th and 16th century Northern European woodcuts, so I used that as the model. Playing cards and saints cards (like this one in the National Gallery ) were printed in sheets back in the day (probably for the exact same reasons - relief prints are much faster, easier, (and therefore less expensive) to print than intaglio and putting them in a sheet gives a higher yield per impression.) Then I cut them out afterwards...
Next, I made this mini-block for #14. It's very similar to one of the first blocks I ever carved. (The tree in that one had always bothered me, and I thought I could to it better now with better tools and more practice :) - true.) |
| Block #14 |
#15 is the only aluminum plate this week.
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The technical reason is true and valid, but it felt like a narrative "fill in the gap." (after all - it could have been anything), but I figured it was just one of those things - sometimes you just feel like making a deer (shrug)... I moved on to the next plate...and then looked up - at the deer which has been inches from my face the entire time (and just happens to be in almost the exact same pose, hahaha - silly human).
Other art activities of the week - I went to Print Fair North at Zea Mays, and it was awesome! I really love seeing the work of so many talented and dedicated artists all in one (familiar!) place. I charged the camera battery, went back in the house to get my camera when I forgot it, then was so art-happy that I forgot to take the camera out of my bag [doh! sigh.] Fortunately, there's a nice article with pictures in Take Magazine this week - can you spot me? :) ).
In para-art news:
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| plate #15 - 3.5 x 2.25" |
It's not part of the tiny tarot, but I just (seemingly randomly) really wanted to make a deer. Since there was plenty of time to dwell on this while working on it, I started to get a little worried: "am I bored with the tiny tarot? (that would be bad, since I'm only about half way through the deck)...maybe just not connecting with the remaining cards? (sort of true, but I can always choose/tweak the iconography...) Why the deer now??" I photograph deer frequently and they appear in my work sometimes (like the Tower in tribute to Master of the Playing Cards). Moreover, there is a technical reason for wanting to try this plate - the tiny tarot cards are done in a single grounding (*and to keep them an even set, I don't plan to change that), but with this plate I tried re-grounding the plate for a second round of working into the plate as a soft ground, baking it, working more into the hard ground, then spit etching; so it was more processes than I would have used on a tiny tarot plate.
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| working into the plate as a soft ground |
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| plate re-grounded with B.I.G. ground (* I know, I sound like a broken record, but this stuff really is (green-)magical) |
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| after a little more work on the hard ground, I spit etched and selectively polished the plate (which doesn't show up very well in my not-so-good proofs, though it's just enough for me to tell that it's truly in the plate. A bit frustrating knowing that there's more information in the plate than is showing up right now. Though better this week than last week - bevelling the top edge down further did help the plate to go through the proofing press (sort of)... how happy-making it will be when I print these at Zea Mays in a few weeks...) |
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| As I was working on the next piece (back to the tiny tarot!), I looked up and had to laugh at myself - this is the view about a foot from my face, just above eye level when I sit at the desk to work under magnification... - the model was for the deer that was part of Eros et Thanatos in Nov. 2013 (which did come to mind...) even though, somehow, I didn't realize until I was finished that this model has been inches from my face for hours while I've been working on the tiny tarot, hahaha. |
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Other art activities of the week - I went to Print Fair North at Zea Mays, and it was awesome! I really love seeing the work of so many talented and dedicated artists all in one (familiar!) place. I charged the camera battery, went back in the house to get my camera when I forgot it, then was so art-happy that I forgot to take the camera out of my bag [doh! sigh.] Fortunately, there's a nice article with pictures in Take Magazine this week - can you spot me? :) ).
In para-art news:
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| crossing paths with more orange industrial things on the streets of Hudson - yay! |
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| Officially fall and the first batch of pumpkin spice cookies |
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| Requisite eclipse shot |
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| because I included a cute kitty photo of my princess last week, this week I figured it's Junior's turn - here we are in the studio, working hard,- worn out from a busy day of hoarding winged rats and playing with the collage thread, she has decided to nap on Mom's lap: "O, you didn't think you needed that hand to cut out and arrange paper did you?" |
