A busy week in Artlandia! I made a final print of the foliage block to go in the background of the unicorn pseudo-tapestry.
To get there, I first toned the paper a mottled, grey-green with gold flecks. I gotta say, I like how this turned out:
I took this at an angle so try to show how as the viewer moves, gold in the paper reflect light like sun dappling the leaves.
I haven't glued/ sewed it in yet because I'm rethinking the ground (doh.) but I tacked it in place for now to get an idea of how it's working with the unicorn, and so far - two thumbs up :)
Looking at the new foliage block up close, I think it's easy to see how closely it relates to the earlier landscape plated for the first unicorn from last May.
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| landscape from May |
A big difference is that the older blocks were polyester plates where the line was drawn and inked light on black paper and the new block it lines are carved out and inked dark on light paper - the switch allowed me to have the mottling and gold on the paper to show through in the lighter sections. Like the piece from May, I will print and sew on flowers to these.
So the ground...I decided like having the foliage be subtractive instead of additive, I think I want to try the ground as subtractive instead of additive. So...I got a nice piece of 2 x 4 foot wood and am going to use the grain pattern to help guide the marks.
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| A loooot of carving ahead; good thing both my feline assistants are on point |
Using the wood grain to make the pattern in the background is also something I've done before in an additive way with pen in this piece from 2013. The great thing about doing it subtractively in a block is that I can use it more than once (thumbs up!)
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| close up of stitching from the back |
The other thing I did this week was prepare an older piece for framing by strengthening the physical attachment of the pieces. This looks great and (hopefully!) should be effective in making sure none the parts are going to fall off, but it's pretty laborious, and I'm eager to get it done so I can get back to carving.
