Unlike Remo Williams, I continue to honor my promises and produce sequels.
While I haven’t actually printed anything recently, I have been doing more work in the realm of linocuts. In the real of practicing what I preach, here are many things that are not where I’d like them but are part of the process of making progress.
In the direct line of work, I did two new carvings.
This is based on some photo I found of a bunch of stag beetle types. It’s probably not one particular beetle but a mash of several types.
This one is based on the photo below which I took in downtown Richmond back in 2013. I don’t know if it’ll work when it comes to printing, but I like the idea. Now I just have to get enough skill to pull it off. I also learned that I need to be much more careful coloring over with a sharpie. I saw someone do it to help see what needed cutting but I did it with a dark color late in the carving process and was too sloppy. That led to me not being able to see at all. I have no idea how badly I’ve messed this up but I’m pretty sure at least 6 badly.1
Some of what I’ve been doing is looking at my old flickr photos through a linocut lens. I made an album of potential shots that might inspire some carving and, at some point, some printing.
I’m also just trying to build up some brain/hand connections by drawing. I don’t quite know what I’m doing but it’s fun.
Those sketches are inspired (but poorly replicated) by the image below which was made by inkshedpress. The stuff they make is just amazing.2
I also hit a gold mine of stuff in archive.org. I can check out all kinds of books on woodcuts (like the one below).
I’ve also got a collection of images on my desktop of possible future prints.
I’ve also found myself taking photos for inspiration (instead of the reverse). I hope to get good enough to render something that approaches these shots from our local pond at some point.
Digging the whole linocut adventure. I also like seeing you skills (both here and on Flickr) as a sketch artist. I think that is one of the things I find cool about things like this, the collateral work you have to do to make it happen. Push you to sketch and draw more, work on certain amounts of coordination, etc. There is so muchthat goes into any one skill, and the idea of getting good at it is really rewarding.
Beyond that, take the cross-over between turning your own photos into linocuts, and there is a kind of vertical integration of art that I am digging. Woodward Enterprises. Getting an old abandoned warehouse in Richmond and let’s start return to the basics campaign for all us Gen-Xers that want to reclaim some basic skills and make some art.
Appreciate it and I agree. The mix of things is fun. To be boring, I think about it in the same way I think about different academic disciplines. The stuff ought to bleed over and move back and forth. The way you look at lots of different things ought to shift and the more ways you can look at something, the better. The more ways you think about how it might be presented/create/interacted-with, the better.
I may yet find a way to just make interesting things for/with interesting people.