I have died and gone to art-heaven.
A very productive week in Artlandia!
3 full-sized new plants (!!)
vine black on gray stonehenge paper, 11 x 15":
Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but even I'm surprised to have 3 full-sized plants in one week (gold star!)
Mostly this is due to a new technical development (phase 8!) I carved the plants small then used the computer to blow them up and transfer them to polyester lithography plates. Still a little work to due figuring out how best to refine and prepare the digital files for transfer, but this is fantastic because it allows me to change the size and orientation of relief printed things and to drop out the background to isolate the object. (Durer may have had an atelier of assistants, but I have a computer, haha ;) ).
It also gave me a great opportunity to compare between the relief based plant and the one from last week drawn directly on the plate:
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| This is a great example of what I mean by "closed" vs. "open" forms. They're both polyester lithography prints, but the left is based on a relief print, and the right is drawn directly onto the plate |
Looking at these brings up some interesting questions for me. The open style plant is much more in keeping with the style of the 15th and 16th century Northern European prints that I love (for example, here's a detail from a Durer woodcut). I can make them either way, but...my instinct is to go with the more closed plants (hmmmmmm - time to cut the rope and walk away from the source material?)  |
| the relief plants, 9 x 12" |
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| I love them in mini-scale, this one is about 3 x 4" |
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| 9 x 12" block |
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| The dress is based on this very beautiful late 15th century version of St. Barbara by Master FVB (pitter patter, pitter, patter). |
I feel like I'm making some real progress, but miles to go...eager to start seeing some larger things come together.
