Monday, January 23, 2017

squirrel and tree

A busy week in Artlandia! A new squirrel and 6 feet of art-tree - thumbs up!


To get to that point, first, there was carving and proofing the new squirrel block:

 
Like the rats, I find this little guy so funny for some undefinable reason. Also like the rats, the first block (from July 2014) showed a more static pose, and I feel like I'm progressing toward more complex and expressive postures - thumbs up. Once I was happy with the block, I went ahead and printed this and the older squirrel block on a gray paper and then added ink and acrylic to individualize them.   
new print of squirrel block from July 2014

I also finished the tree trunk block.  Then I prepared paper for it by marbling gray paper with black and then adding green paint for moss so that each print would be subtly different.  I wasn't sure how best to make moss, so eventually, I went with the very straightfoward approach of dipping actual moss in paint and pressing it on the paper. 




  On the one hand, I'm stoked how well it turned out; on the other hand, the amount of time invested into each sheet of paper limited the quantity I was able to prepare and so I did not want to waste any of it.  

Fortunately - no misprints (Whew!)





Combined with the base, that makes
6 feet of art tree so far :). 
  
 One of the cool things about the print is I designed it
so that it can be flipped over and aligned to itself
to act as two 30" segments of trunk.