Late
last Summer I took a long walk in a wooded glen, and found
inspiration
for a new block print.
But
that was the year of many shows and little time for new art.
So it is
now mid-January, and the making of “Sunlit Stream” can finally
begin.
Printmaker
friend Yoshiko recommends a particular brand of extra light-fast
inks, so I have stocked up.
I
carve a block...
...mix and print first color, the glowing green-yellow
leaf color. Make 150 prints.
Dang. Looks less like glowing leaves,
more like mustard. This brand of yellow ink behaves very differently from my
usual! Add this discovery to long mental list of New Ways To Screw Up A
Block Print. But
perhaps the color will look better when dry?
Nope. Well, perhaps that
can be fixed somehow later. Carve
another block and print second color, brown, and check for accuracy
against handy Sharpie drawing on clear plastic.
Next
is the blue water shadow. Slight panic: shipment of opaque white ink, needed to
create the blue, is delayed! But blue must be
printed today in order for the prints to be finished in time for the
National Arts & Crafts Conference, our biggest show of the year.
Say a prayer, go to printing center, and see if there might be some
white ink lying around. After much searching, an old can is
unearthed, with just enough white ink to mix up my blue and do this
printing. Thankyouthankyou!
Now
it’s time to resolve the mustard yellow ink issue. Carve a new block, with
just the leaf shapes, to avoid laying another big layer of ink all
over that whole area (too many layers = trouble).
Cut
away extra linoleum, to save carving time...
At
the printing center, my friend Rose makes birthday and Valentine's
day cards, and lends moral support as I mix up a new pale
yellow-green ink. Thanks, Rose!
Better!
Now
for the sunlit portion of the water. To get the right olive color, I
mix green, yellow, blue, white, black, and red.
Make
a print, tweak the carving a little...
For
once, ink transparency works in my favor: the blue shadows underneath
show through the olive, creating a new shadow.
Next
is dark green for the foliage. Cut out all the little leaf shapes,
mix the ink, and print.
But
the edges of the light green leaves peek through the dark green.
Ehh.
Don't like it. Yet another New Way To Screw Up A Block Print.
Clean
the press, go home, and carve all the leaves bigger.
Try
again.
Much
better!
Now
carve shapes for darker olive water shadows, re-using parts of the
lighter olive block, so shapes will match.
But the shapes refuse to
match. Even Former Professional Commercial Printer Bob cannot make sense of this.
I finally
realize that the linoleum shapes have actually stretched under the
press, because too much of the supporting linoleum was cut away. (Yet another item for New Ways To Screw Up list.) The solution: just cut off the
stretched portion; it isn't essential anyway.
One
color left to print: black. But because the black needs to register
perfectly to many of the leaves, I decide to re-use the block with
leaf cutouts, additionally cutting out all dark green foliage shapes
from it. So this block will print the black on the upper portion of
the scene only.
The
final carving for the rest of the black takes about 12 hours,
a lot
of lost sleep, and a little blood.
The printing is slow and tedious...
but finally “Sunlit Stream” is finished!
Of the original 150 prints, 98 came out perfectly. With just enough time to dry and have a few of them framed before departure to Arts & Crafts Conference. Phew. Say another prayer of thanks. Block printing is so very humbling!