(no subject)
Ah, today was nice. Instead of spending all day dithering around until I tell myself it's too late to go into the studio, I decided early on that I was giving myself the day off to read a book or two (or three) and do housework. This greatly reduces my guilt about not having an eight hour shift in the lab. And I really did need to do laundry and Swiffer the kitchen.
For those curious, the painting critique was... well, aside from my use of colour, composition, and painting technique, they seemed to like it.
I'm getting work done, though I need to spend more hours in the lab and have more going on. It's all well and good to have five plates going (four are for the Zen Garden) but when they're all waiting for the spray paint on the back to dry I am at a bit of a loss.
Right now my other biggest problem (besides needing ideas for another few prints) is that two pieces I'm working on both have cats in them, and I need pictures if I want to get the poses right, and if you've ever tried to get a photograph of a cat in a specific position you'll know why this isn't going well.
These are the aforementioned five plates. The four to the left are for the zen garden, and the one to the right is for another piece. This is what's called a proof, and basically exists because it's next to impossible to tell what information is on a plate until you've printed it.
This is a close-up of the carving for that woodblock I'm working on... this is the Keyblock, which is always carved first. You then print a dozen or however many prints you need, and use them as references for each of the colour blocks. During actual printing this'll be printed last, so that the black is sharp and covers up any mistakes on earlier colours. I'm hoping to do the initial printing Monday so I can start work on the coloured blocks, which should all be much simpler to carve.
The actual carving was pretty nerve-wracking because, honestly, I'm not much of a woodcarver. I usually stick to linoleum. As you can see, there are a few areas left uncarved... that's either because I 1. need a reference shot of the kitten 2. am saving the area 'til last so that I'll have had the practice of carving the rest of it 3. they're "unresolved" which is an art term meaning I haven't quite figured out what I'm doing yet.
And now, a picture of a rainbow. We don't get many of those here, what with the complete lack of moisture... All day it's been threatening to rain, but sadly, never did. But anyway. Rainbow!
For those curious, the painting critique was... well, aside from my use of colour, composition, and painting technique, they seemed to like it.
I'm getting work done, though I need to spend more hours in the lab and have more going on. It's all well and good to have five plates going (four are for the Zen Garden) but when they're all waiting for the spray paint on the back to dry I am at a bit of a loss.
Right now my other biggest problem (besides needing ideas for another few prints) is that two pieces I'm working on both have cats in them, and I need pictures if I want to get the poses right, and if you've ever tried to get a photograph of a cat in a specific position you'll know why this isn't going well.
These are the aforementioned five plates. The four to the left are for the zen garden, and the one to the right is for another piece. This is what's called a proof, and basically exists because it's next to impossible to tell what information is on a plate until you've printed it.
This is a close-up of the carving for that woodblock I'm working on... this is the Keyblock, which is always carved first. You then print a dozen or however many prints you need, and use them as references for each of the colour blocks. During actual printing this'll be printed last, so that the black is sharp and covers up any mistakes on earlier colours. I'm hoping to do the initial printing Monday so I can start work on the coloured blocks, which should all be much simpler to carve.
The actual carving was pretty nerve-wracking because, honestly, I'm not much of a woodcarver. I usually stick to linoleum. As you can see, there are a few areas left uncarved... that's either because I 1. need a reference shot of the kitten 2. am saving the area 'til last so that I'll have had the practice of carving the rest of it 3. they're "unresolved" which is an art term meaning I haven't quite figured out what I'm doing yet.
And now, a picture of a rainbow. We don't get many of those here, what with the complete lack of moisture... All day it's been threatening to rain, but sadly, never did. But anyway. Rainbow!