Proofing the Curl Snout

I had such grand intentions.  Tuesday I remembered to put some paper down to soak before I went to work so I could pull some proofs of my Chinese New Year Dragon.  Wednesday morning was literally a goat rodeo as we gathered Odin up to get neutered.  I had intended on packing up my supplies to go to the Virginia Artist Book Center and pull some proofs of the block.  I had such grand intentions.  I barely drug myself to the meeting at VABC but was glad I went.  So many exciting ideas and concepts were discussed.  I'm glad I didn't skip it.  Fast forward to Thursday and when I went upstairs to check my email my foot bumped against my paper humidor and I had one of those Oh, yeah. That's right. I was supposed to do that wasn't I. moments.  A flare of procrastination drifted over my mind but it was swiftly dispatched by the kraken mentioned in my last post.  I tossed my brush into my water basin and set to work. 

I've been trying to use up my bokuju.  It's great stuff but I have a whole other bottle to use after this one is gone so I might as well use it now.  It really has a richer color to it than regular sumi.  

Looks like a good impression so far.  It's hard to ink up a freshly carved block sometimes because it looks so pristine.  The kento needs to print up as well for accurate registration.  You can see the triangle and the trapezoid in the right hand side of the paper.

I stalled on using this piece of wood but I've been hanging onto it for years.  Kraken to the rescue!  Slather the nori on and ask questions later.

I really like this method because I don't have to deal with xeroxes or smelly chemicals for transfer.  There's no extra tools or supplies besides paper and nori that you already are using for printing.  Plus, it's like working from the original because it really is a copy of the block and registration.

I'm saving space by carving two colors and their registrations on one block.

I have an idea also for the concept of an "onion dragon" so I went ahead and made another two potential blocks.  Why not?  The resources are there.

Afterwards, we got all cleaned up . . . as clean as nori stained wood can get anyway.  I love my little dragon's expression.  I love his little curled snout.  It's like he's thinking "That was a good swim!"

Oh, sketch heaven

It's funny how one can be caught up in circumstances that appear beyond one's control.  Practice delegates that one can be conscientious and remember that there is always a choice if we choose to acknowledge it.  The natural world is the best example of how multifaceted and diverse life can be.  It is in these ruminations that I realize, "Oh yeah.  That thing I do that no one else can do.  That place I go where no one else can follow.  Yes, let's go there and find some peace."  

After going through 6 years of art school, I am amused and comforted to find that my sketch book musings are still the source of what drives me.  Yes, I am thankful for the polish and infrastructure I had learned in school but in the end there was still something missing.  I missed that raw thrill of approaching my ideas with the power of abandon.  I had begun to heavily censor my own thought process.  When the spark of something new would erupt it would immediately go through the "Yes, but will it sell" filter and if it made it past that, over into the "Yes, but will it be cost effective" filter.

Don't get me wrong, being rational often helps head off more than a few disasters, but my working process was soon becoming a downer.  After experiencing my first ocular migraine last week, instead of filling the Compazine prescription I was given, I did a little spring cleaning in my head and loosed the Kraken known as Tohellwitheverything!  I like her.  We get along just fine.  After a good sleep, I started to work on sketching all the ideas I want to do but "haven't had time to do."

Harvey has been my aid for 17 years.  He's featured on my Facebook avatar and is a wonderful muse.  Seeing that he's 17, I should probably put together a bio.  In the sketch above, I was inspired by the 2012 Year of the Drago post card exchange project at Baren Forum.  There are a few other sources but as I continue with this piece, I'll go more in depth.

Here's a redraw of a tiny thumbnail in one of my sketch books that kept nagging at my mind.  I don't know why this image feels so potent in my mind.  It feels something like toiling to produce something with your life only to watch some asshole slither up and consume the fruits of your labor.  Smell like 99% to you? Oh, Lana, you little buzz kill faerie you!

But, in other updates, YAY!  My Dragon Postcard block is finished and now I can make color blocks! Yay!  Believe it or not, this block will not be used the postcard.  It's a key for the color blocks.  You'll see. :-)

Year of the Dragon

What better than a dragon to get me carving and printing again?  Here is a shot of the block I am carving for my year of the Dragon postcard exchange.  I've had this block of shina for a while and it seems appropriate for this occassion.  I can't lie about it:  Knife sharpening is one of my least favorite aspects of doing moku hanga. I finally made myself sit down and assess my knives and most of them now are back in good shape.  I've forgotten what a joy it is to sit and carve and watch my sketch appearing in a block of wood.  Later, I can write about what a joy it is to watch my drawing come to life as a print.

Fatter Fatness!

      It has been a little while since I've posted! I love blogging and documentation but sometimes it does get in the way of making work.  I have a show in April so I made the decision to skip a lot of blogging and get to the making part!  Still had my camera handy but only picked it up when I felt things were well underway and my progress is going good.
    The latest work I have completed is dedicated to my wonderful muse, Fatter Fat Toad!  You can read more about her here on my other blog:

Fatter Fat Toad in the Journey to Middle Earth

      The Chinese consider toads to be very auspicious and I really enjoyed Fatter Fat's company whether or not she brought me money.  She brought me plenty of joy!  I always wanted to carve a block to remember her by.  It's been a year or so since I've seen her.  I started with pictures I took of her in her favorite place next to porch steps. I picked out one of my favorites that I took of her and posted on my blogspot about her. She didn't like the camera and would puff herself up when I took photos so that she looked like a giant disk of warty clay! I liked the one of her head slightly turned to face the camera as she lay puffed up with her legs tucked under her. It showed off her warts and stripes.  After she endured my irritating camera I would reward her with worms from my worm composter.  This was maybe the secret to why she stayed around so much.

      I sketched from this and several others.  (The smaller sketches are from other smaller toads that have visited the house.)  After roughing in her dimensions and markings, I transferred the sketch to a piece of battleship gray linoleum and went about carving.  For some reason, it was hard to initially carve this work.  I don't know if it was because I was worried that I'd somehow screw up or that this was the first time in a long time that I had carved battleship gray linoleum.  Usually, I work with the golden hued (softer) stuff.  I knew I'd like the gray material because it would hold more detail but somehow it was hard to just get started. I noticed myself avoiding her face so I decided to approach the carving through the markings in her flank. In hind sight, I think I was afraid of making an error in carving her face.

As I progressed I did something I never do when carving linoleum but may start doing. I took a black magic marker and colored over the remaining surface to get a good visual on what was going to print. I've never needed to do that before but for some reason this time around it was a good aid to help me balance tones throughout the rest of the piece.

      As I began closing in on her head it was becoming less of a hassle to begin working on her face because now I had a "guide map" of sorts to work with. I could match the texture and colors in her face to the textures and colors in her body without second guessing because I could already see how they will look.

Once the carving was finished, I mounted it on a piece of plywood with carpet tape to make it type high on my vandercook printing press. The printing was a real treat and Fatter Fat must have been a real good omen because I suffered no set backs or issues during printing. I printed her up in an oil based ink made by Graphic Chemical called Antiquarian Black. It is supposed to hearken back to the early period when books were printed and it does have a warm rich tone that is very comfortable with my soft fibrous paper. I chose to photograph the final print rather than scan it so that the morning light would bounce off the edges of he impression and you can see how it is slightly debossed into the paper. Now all I have to do is sign and edition!

Dragonflies and Damselflies

   The holidays have passed and with them the memories of all we shared this season: kinship, gifts, flu viruses. . . 'Tis the season!
In celebration of ushering in the new this year, I'm starting my first post with some photos documenting a new painting I'm working on. I always enjoyed the works of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement artisans as well as works from the Art Deco period. Illustrations in books that looked like woodblock prints always thrilled me. Don't get me started on how much I loved Aubrey Beardsley. Later on down the road of life I'm finding out my fascination stems from the inspiration these artisans took in soaking up and processing their natural surroundings and then imbuing their everyday life and the objects that surrounded them with the spirit of that natural world. How wonderful, I began to think, it would be to practice the same habit with plants, animals, and landscape features of my OWN surroundings. This new body of work will my made with that concept in mind. This first endeavor has been REALLY educational.

I went boating down the Rivanna River a few times this summer with my friends.  On one occasion I borrowed a sit on top kayak and  I remember a very distinct experience. The sit on top version was effortless and allowed me to drift down the river with relative ease. I could take in my surroundings and even sketch if I wished. I was amused at the insects that surrounded the wake of the boat and at times I was so still that multiple dragonflies would light on my skin and ride with me while water striders would skim my wake as we drifted down river. (I will be investing in a sit on top in the near future!)
I began the painting featured above in inspiration of that moment in time. There are a few varieties of dragonfly that stuck out in my mind but I did not know their names and I had not brought a camera with me (or a sketch book!) to document. I set about internet surfing and learned a few things. Two of the three varieties that stuck in my mind were not dragonflies but damselflies. I remember Ebony Jewel Wing Damselflies and Bluets from the creek in my back yard. I also remember large true dragonflies by the name of Common White Tail Dragonflies. I sprinkled these over a peppering of Water Striders with a background of an aquatic weed called Water Star Grass. This was the river weed that I fell so much in love with as it reminded me of a woman's hair softly listing back and forth in the currents.

I started drawing the damselflies and rendered first the Bluets. Their wings were paddle shaped and are pretty crystal clear except for one cell dyed black. It was very mesmerizing to mimic the pattern that the veins in their wings take it was almost like drawing cascading lightening.

Next came the Ebony Jewel Wing Damselflies. When painted, these insects wings will be entirely black but I want to use varying shades of black and charcoal to let the vein pattern show through. Their wings are shaped more like rudders and are more robust than the Bluets.

And lastly, All hail the power of the Common White Tail Dragonfly for he hath brought down the artist with a mighty blow! When I first rendered this insect I thought, This should be the quickest one to draw because a good portion of each wing is dedicated to an opaque black pigment. This lasted until I began to render the wings in the stained glass tile pattern that is evident in their biology. Teeny tiny little cells lined up patiently next to each other in beautifully, minute, intricate detail. I had to break out the swing arm magnifying glass because my eyes were becoming so tired.

Mostly because I could only dedicate 1 to 2 hours of my day to this piece before I had to get ready for work, working on this solitary dragonfly has taken about a week.

But today is Saturday and I finally finish this single dragonfly. Perhaps Sunday will bring at least half of the last dragonfly. I hope to dedicate at least part of the day to sharpening my block carving knives as I still have a crayfish in need of a new life as a key block!

Lana won't be at the Market this Saturday!

Sadness!  Lana is not going to be at the Charlottesville Holiday Market this Saturday the 18th!  I've finally managed to pick up some of the crud that everyone's been infected with.  Bleh.  I guess it was bound to happen at some point or another.  I'm sad that I will miss out on the hand made birdhouses, yarn, mittens, scarves, wreaths, brooms, pottery, candy, sausages, and empanadas!  You guys can go and get in on the last of all these locally made goodies, though!

More fun prints and handmade stamp goodness this Saturday!

Yep, we're going to get out in it again this Saturday at the Charlottesville Holiday Market!  There is the addition of my friend Jenny Swab who crafts these wonderful stuffed animals out of socks, gloves, and old sweaters.  I'm particularly fond of her Glove Octopus stuffed animals!  I will still be featuring my hand carved Cork Stamps and prints of my Farm People along with Holiday Cards and some other prints that I do.  There will lots of other wonderful goodies about so come on down and don't miss out!