Ready to Edition

After a couple more weeks working on the mezzotint plate it is now at a stage where it is ready to edition.

Blea Gill - Mezzotint

I started a new mezzotint just before Christmas, beginning work on putting the image on to the plate the first week in December. By mid January the plate was at a stage where I needed to take an impression just to give me an idea of how it would look like printed. On the plate the image looks quite well defined, however this is very misleading as can be seen on the 1st state impression, which is still very dark and on paper not as well defined as the plate image would suggest.

Plate at state i

Image at state i
The image is very dark and with little definition. The sky is starting to take shape and while the waterfall is clear it needs more burnishing to bring out the highlights on the water.

Image at state ii

Image at state iii
More work on the sky, a combination of scraping and burnishing back the burrs is starting to define the clouds and veils of mist sweeping down the valley towards the waterfall.

Image at state iv
Slowly pulling out and sharpening up the image. At this stage the image is almost ready to edition. The cliff to the left of the waterfall needs to be lightened up, it is supposed to be sunlit! The clouds need to be lightened in parts to break up the uniform grey tone.

Last Print of the Old Year

Ingleborough from the South West

17 colour reduction linocut printed in 9 stages

252mm x 342mm

Edition of 10

The final print of 2015, completed just before New Years Eve.

New month - new linocut

Print no 2 in my attempt to make 15 new prints in 30 weeks for my upcoming Solo show at the Abbott Hall Gallery in Kendal next March. After cutting away the white areas, colour 1 is a pale cream. Unusually at this stage there is maybe just enough information visible in the print for someone familiar with Yorkshire's crumbling relics to recognise the location.

Colour 2 is a pale grey.

Colour 3, blue and still wet hence the shine from the camera flash.

Colour 4, the first green.

Colour 5. A darker version of the first cream colour. The location is definitely recognisable now.

Colour 6. A pale purple grey colour.

Colour 7. A second green.

Two more greens and a final dark should see it finished.

Littondale

It's been a month since I last posted any finished work. The last few weeks have been busy with a number of art fairs so I haven't spent much time on doing any new work. I finished drawing out this drypoint earlier this week but have only got around to printing it this morning.

Low Ryelands - Littondale
Drypoint
140mm x 210mm

Buttertubs Pass

Rain over the Buttertubs Pass
12 colour reduction linocut.
265mm x 170mm
Edition of 10

Another completed print, recently delivered to the Craft Centre and Design Gallery in Leeds. This shows the Buttertubs Pass between Wensleydale and Swaledale on a typical winters day. Grey sky and a grey landscape.

Kilnsey Crag - Again

Looking South - Kilnsey Crag
13 Colour Reduction Linocut. 251mm x 362mm. Edition of 11.

No step by step stages of this one just the completed print. On the 5th July messers Wiggins and co will come peddling up this road beneath the crag on the first stage of the Tour de France.

Dent

A quiet corner in Dent.
3 colour Reduction Linocut
177mm x 120mm.

Finished the demonstration piece. For me not a typical print, Its only two colours plus black for a start and I don't usually go in for a black outline and border round everything. So alongside my usual work it looks a little strange. However, it served its purpose as a demonstration print, as I printed the final colour as part of my talk last friday at Doncaster Art Gallery. Not being a particularly confident public speaker it was quite helpful to have something to do whilst talking.

Now to get back to some proper work. If all goes well, next week should see a big piece I have been working on finished. It will have to be a full reveal though as I haven't been photographing any of the stages.

Littondale Panorama

Finally finished this print. The stage above is with the first green added and the one below with the second green.

And finally a dark to bring it all together

Littondale Panorama
10 Colour reduction Linocut. 240mm x 362mm.


I have mixed feelings about this print. I experimented with the cutting in the foreground to try and give some feel of the grasses rather than using my more usual 'flat colour' technique. The effect I was after is there but I think I held back a little on the cutting. I should have really gone for it! Something to try next time.

Three more colours on the new print

Forgot to photograph a stage so there are two colours here. Then the first green for the foreground hills.

Happy New Year

I know its supposed to have been a holiday, but I couldn't sit around for a week doing nothing. So after two days of enforced idleness over Christmas, I managed to steal a few hours in between entertaining visitors and making visits ourselves to relatives.

I'm working bigger than I normally do on this print, actually twice as big. As the prints are too big for my scanner I'm having to photograph the stages as I go along. For a change lets start with the cartoon, scaled up from the original A5 sized pen and ink field sketch. This is a classic view from the Yorkshire Dales, looking down Littondale from the moor above Halton Gill towards Wharfedale in the far distance.

First colour is a warm cream.

Followed by a darker tone made by adding a little purple to the previous colour.

Next up, a pale yellow/green for the freshly cut fields in the centre of the valley.

I'm not sure exactly how many more colours this will require, my original idea was to use eight colours but it will probably end up being ten or eleven.