After our visit to Kauai in February, I decided to create a Rooster print of one of the wild chickens that I photographed on Poipu Beach. There are feral chickens all over the island. You see them at the airport, around the resorts, and on the beaches. I imagine the people who reside on the island feel about them like we do about pigeons--nuisance birds. Tourists are much more enchanted with them. I liked seeing the mother hens and chicks scuttling around the bushes, and the males parading across the beaches and popping up along the trails.
I wanted to incorporate some of the plants from the island into the layout of the design.
The image on the left is the drawing on tracing paper, and the image on the right is the design transferred onto the Soft-Kut 8" x 10" block.
After using a Sharpie marker on all the lines, I began cutting away the areas that would remain white. The first layer of ink is a tannish color.
The tan layer covered the whole block.
The Sharpie transfers a bit to the paper, as well as the ink.
The next step was to carve away the areas that I wanted to remain tan.
I needed to make a stencil for the bird's red head, as I didn't want to cover the whole block with red ink, as it would interfere with the other colors that would come later.
The stencil worked pretty well.
I printed a yellow layer and then a light green layer, using a small bayer to keep the ink only on the plants, not the bird.
green ink yellow layer
The next step was to add another layer of red to the head for more definition.
I added a greenish gray for the next layer.
More carving away areas of the background before I printed a darker gray layer.
This is the current stage of the print. I plan on adding another layer to better define the feathers on the rooster's tail, and then it should be completed.
So you can see I'm keeping busy! Looking forward to April, and hopefully some warmer Spring weather!
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