The Internet still works pretty well for me.1 It brought me some examples of linocuts that got me interested in something I haven’t done since 7th grade. I went on my normal pattern of following a bunch of people who do this on Instagram2, watching a random assortment of YouTube videos (from tutorials to documentaries) and then throwing myself at something that looks worth doing, even it’s out of my skill range.
Patience is a key aspect in making art. There are different aspects to it though and I’m not convinced I want patience in certain areas- even if it’d make my life easier. For instance, I have very little just-a-beginner patience. I think that’s related to the Taste Gap stuff Ira Glass talks about. I don’t have this patience with computer programming or traditional education assignments. Not a fan even of it with woodworking and home repairs. I don’t want to make a demo that isn’t real. I have no interest in a fake real-world project. I don’t want to practice simple moves repeatedly in isolation.3
I do have to be patient when carving. The first stuff I got to carve was the pink rubber (?) blocks. You can carve that stuff easily but moving too fast tears the material. You also can’t get the kind of detail I want. You can see that in the scales on the pink fish. I tried to be clever and cut a semi-circle and then link it with two triangular cuts. Utter failure. Messy result. I think that’s a limitation of the material but it might also be a combination of my skill and the tool.
I made it through two of these pink blocks before I was frustrated (good impatience?) and started looking around. I quickly found battleship gray linoleum. This is a step up in so many ways. It’s much harder to cut and hurrying results in the rather sharp tool skipping. I haven’t stabbed myself yet4 but that combined with messing up the carving will provide pretty strong natural consequences if I go too fast.
My current pattern is to find a linocut that is impressive. I then consider doing a bunch of orderly things I saw in videos (draw on paper, transfer, tint the linoleum, etc.). I don’t do any of them, and just sketch a rough outline on the linoleum with a pencil. While not great it some ways, I am enjoying it. The printing so far has been a distant second in my goals. I only have one small tube of ink so I’ve been stingy with it. I mainly ink the linoleum to see the carving better. I can see a future where I have a second tube of ink, possibly in another color.
In addition to looking at linocuts, engravings, lithographs, woodcuts, block prints, and other similar works . . . I find myself going back through old photographs and doing rough sketches. None of these have made it from paper to linoleum yet, but it’s been fun to draw regularly. I trace the linoleum block size on large drawing paper to keep me in bounds and usually do 5 or 6 sketches.
The red cartoon birds below are the closest I’ve come to preparing the linoleum first. I colored it with a red marker. I traced my pencil lines with a blue marker and then mostly followed them but made up all the internal details in the moment. I got a bit sloppy at times and need to get better at realizing the limits of my skill and current tools. Cutting tiny circles is not working out. Although, with this kind of stuff, any errors can just be considered part of the primitive charm.
1 Look! Jim agrees! I actually started this post at the end of Feb. so you also see something of my writing process.
2 This site also still works in spite of the company and its goals. It would be much better in just plain RSS but it’s still has so many people doing amazing things. I can’t easily show you who I’ve been following because it’s such a hassle to find and group people in this site.
3 Pretty sure Mr Miyagi and I would have fought. I hate everything about that scenario. It’s like Harry Potter. Just tell people what’s going on.
4 I have pretty decent knife safety skills from early childhood.
Keep it up Tom.
Don’t stop now.
Make More Things!
These look so good – please keep posting about what you’re making!
I appreciate that. One of the kids was home for Spring Break so I’m behind on my attempts and have only been drawing. I think my next attempt will be a cow from a random historic photo.