Out in the cold

After spending the morning finishing the Rainy day print and printing the first two colours on a new linocut. This afternoon found me in the snow high on the moors above Holmfirth.

It was bitterly cold in the biting wind and the watercolour took a long time to dry, although at least it didn't freeze on the brush. Spent about half an hour on the sketch and that was about as much as my fingers could stand. It was a nice afternoon though, with grouse and curlew calling from across the moor, and even a wood mouse scurrying around.

After another couple of days cutting and printing the rainy day print is almost finished.

I've printed a warm orange down the left side of the print to put some colour into the dead reeds on the river bank.

Then a darker version of the first green.

This next colour, a pale blue green for the distant woodland should really have been printed a couple of colours ago but I had forgotten about it. Fortunately none of the block in this area had been removed.

A darker version adds some definition into the distant trees.

And another dark green defines the right hand river bank. Should be finished now after one more colour.

Rainy Day

Looking back through my previous prints it became apparent that I could be giving a false impression of my home county. Whilst its true that we do sometimes get warm sunny days and blue skies, dotted with cotton wool clouds arranged in a convenient composition. Climatically Yorkshire does have more in common with Wales and the Lake District than with the South of France. More often than not we have grey skies and rain. So in order to re-dress the balance here goes....

First colour, an overall warm greyish tone with some white streaks which hopefully will suggest rain.

Colour 2.
Next colour is simply a darker tone of colour 1. Trying to suggest the break in the clouds.

Colour 3.
A slightly darker blue grey tone finishes off the sky and the river in the foreground, now to add some colour into the landscape.

Colour 4.
The first green. Although not a lot of this will show in the finished print. I'm trying to keep the tonal changes quite subtle as I need to give the impression of the flat light of a rainy day.

Colour 5.
A  pale brown for the muddy river bank and the reedbed on the left side.

Colour 6
A darker tone of colour 5 to add some texture to the mud and more definition to the reeds. The cutting and printing to get to this stage has taken 4 days so far. Another three but more likely four colours to go.

Sprotborough Flash

Since the last posting on this print I have finally got it finished although without having photographed any of the intermediate step by step stages.

Summer-Sprotborough Flash
14 Colour Reduction Linocut. 254mm x 364mm. Edition of 5