Rocks on North Hampton Beach

 Summer is officially over, and I'm working on a new print inspired by the many walks I've taken on North Hampton Beach this year. I loved seeing the cairns that people would build precariously on the rocks at the end of the beach.

The beginning stages of carving out the lightest areas.

One layer of ink on the rocks, then a blended sky. I used Akua inks, Arches paper and a Soft-Kut block.

 

Adding the water. (I used a stencil to separate the rocks from the sky)

Adding some texture to the water.

Adding a bit more value to the rocks, as well as a cooler tone to some areas.

As of today, this is the state of the block. Spent quite a few hours carving away the various textures on the rocks. The next and final inking will hopefully define the darkest shadows on all the rocks.

This block is 8" x 10" and will be a hand-printed edition of 12. I'm looking forward to posting the finished image very soon!

Jane

More Rocks

 Greetings on this humid and showery day! It's been very rainy this month, and I'm looking forward to some sequential days of sunshine. Unfortunately, the extended forecast looks like more unsettled weather ahead.

I'm working on a new idea for a block print that incorporates my fascination with rocks and the seashore. This time I'm going for a close up of some colorful textured stones. I'd like to keep the colors more pure as I add the layers, so I'm experimenting with stencils for the initial colors.

Two of the shells are real (not part of the photo)

Sharpie marker over pencil on a 6" x 8" Soft-Kut block

Tracing paper stencil

Layer 1 printed using stencil (some of the marker lines show up in the first prints)

 This is what the plate looks like now. I still have a few more to print of layer 1, as this will be an edition of 16. 

No matter the weather, best wishes for a great weekend!

Jane

New Project-Rooster Print (Hawaiian Jungle Fowl)

 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!

Cascade Falls Block Print

 It's hard to believe that it is September 1st already. The summer flies by so fast, and this is my second year of not having to go back to teaching.  I miss my colleagues, and the kids, but I'm happy to be retired! I really enjoy being able to work in my studio, attend the morning classes at the gym, and have some flexibility in my schedule! 

I just started working on a new print of the Cascade Falls Trail in Waterville Valley, NH. I went hiking recently, during a weekend attending the Women's Leadership Summit, a group connected with Plymouth State University. It was a great time, and we had a lot of fun being outdoors in the beautiful White Mountains.

I just love the rocks!

This is a Soft-Kut block with Sharpie marker.

I carved out the white areas, then printed a light blue first layer.

The second layer is a light gray. 

Now I will be carving out some of the gray areas for the rocks. There are so many tones on the rocks, I'm not sure how many layers it will take to define them. I also think I'll be carving and printing the foreground rocks separately from the greens of the forest in the background.

Stay tuned! 

Lily Pad Print

 Earlier this month I included a drawing of the "lily pad" print that I had started. The block size is 6" x 8" and is a soft-cut type. Since I don't have access to a printing press right now, I've had to use that type of plate for all my recent editions. I really love the easiness of carving, but it takes a bit of elbow grease to get the quality of the prints that I want. I use a baren and a wooden spoon to get the pressure needed. 

The first layer of ink was the green of the lily pads. I cut away the white areas first, as can be seen in the photo below.

In the next step, I carved out all the lily pads.

Then I created a blue blend for the water.

Layer 2-the water

The next step was to carve away the areas of water that I wanted to remain. The last layer is a deep blue to create the illusion of reflections on the water, and to define the shadows.

Final stage of block

The finished print

I matted the print in an 11" x 14" white mat, and it's ready to be posted on my Etsy shop. 

Finally, a little pop of color in the backyard!

Happy Earth Day on the 22nd!

 

Mt Desert Island Reduction Block Print

I am currently working on a new block print based on a piece of land, that my husband always said he wanted to own. We visited Mt. Desert Island many times, from the year we lived outside of Bangor Maine, to camping trips with our daughters, and later again on our own. This spot is located in Manset, a town near Southwest Harbor. The view of the fields, trees, ocean, and mountains seemed like the perfect spot to settle. It was a fantasy, but one that could be imagined with pleasant yearning.

This is the block in its original state, before I printed the sky layer. I find that I am printing different colors separately, rather than covering the whole plate with ink. It allows for the colors to remain purer, with less overlapping of tones.

Three areas of color at this stage.

Multiple Layers

The block and the print ready for the brown in the foreground, and the greens in the background.

I'll post the final image as soon as I'm done.

New Print for New year

 I'm working on a new print to start the new year. One of my favorite places to go is the coast of Maine. Several of my friends and I have been trying to do a weekly "field trip" that includes hiking on various trails, for fun and exercise. The trails in the Wells Preserve are a favorite destination, and on one trip, as we viewed from a staircase, the ocean was very rough, and at high tide. There was a nice contrast between the rocks, surf, and sky.

I traced the photo onto a piece of tracing paper, and then transferred the image onto an 8" x 10" Soft-Kut

block. As I don't have access to a printing press right now, I find the Soft-Kut block works best for hand printing.  I also use a Sharpie marker to keep my design clear on the block, as I will need to print and cut multiple layers, and I don't want the design totally fade away.

At this stage, I am cutting out the areas that I want to remain white in the final print. The water makes a complex pattern, and I am trying to capture the essence of the surf.

I will record the stages of this print, so the process of reduction block printing will be clear, and hopefully successful!

Stay well!!