Shells on Rocks Print

 I haven't posted on this site for several months, but I have been busy working on a new reduction block print. This new print is another version of the On the Rocks theme that I created last year.

For this piece, I used a photograph of beach stones that I superimposed with actual shells, a couple of rocks, a sand dollar, and a sea urchin.

Then I traced my design and transferred the image onto a 6" x 9" easy cut block, and drew over all the lines with a permanent marker.

I carved away all the areas that will remain white on the print, and printed the first layer of ink.

I made a stencil to block out the background rocks, and worked on each shell individually, as I wanted to use different color schemes for each one.

This is the result of the mini prints using the stencil.

This is the state of the block itself after the printing of the shells.

I put little stencils on each shell, to block out the areas already completed.

This is the light gray layer for the background rocks.

The next layer is defining the rocks more.

I'm working on carving out the background rocks now. It will take a while  to finish this stage of the process. Hope to show the finished design by the end of the week. 

Check back in!