2nd Colour

2nd colour on the latest print. A mauve grey, printed in isolation with only the first cream, the colour looks much darker than it actually is. I think the print will take about eight or nine colours in total. With the next colour the subject should begin to be more recognisable.

Raiding the holiday archives

Going back to a sketch made on holiday a couple of years ago for this print. We're on the Northumberland coast, the location will become apparent as the print progresses. Colour 1,  is a pale beige.

Great Northern Diver

Finished the Diver print.

Great Northern Diver

7 Colour Reduction Linocut. 190mm x 170mm. Edition of 8.

Final dark added to the birds head and parts of the birds back and wings.

Three more colours

After printing the last colour in the previous post. The next colour is a small but significant amount of red for the birds eye. There are three options for tackling this.

1. Ignore it altogether and leave it out.
This may be fine if the picture showed a diver floating around a mile off shore, but isn't really an option here.
2. Cheat and paint it in after I've finished printing the rest of the colours.
3. Do the job properly and print the colour.

We'll go with the last option. Firstly, I need to cut a stencil from a piece of tracing paper. I don't want too much of the block covered in bright red ink.

I've used the ink unmixed straight from the tin, as its a transparent water based ink when over printed on the previous colour it will darken to the correct tone.

It looks a bit of a mess but trust me, most of this is going to disappear under the next colour. Which will be a dark slate grey to establish the main tone of the birds back.

And then a slightly darker tone of the same colour.

One more dark tone should see it finished.