Gallery News, Scraperboard Engravings

I am now exhibiting some Scraperboard Engravings and Linocut Prints at;

Talents Fine Arts
7 Market Place
Malton
North Yorkshire
YO17 7LP
www.talentsfinearts.co.uk

This is the first time I have exhibited Scraperboards. These drawings have been made over a number of years for various illustration projects and then stored away in a folder and it was only a chance remark from someone that made me think of showing them.

Whooper Swans.
Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 106mm x 150mm.
Sample illustration drawn for the Hamlyn Publishing Company.

Male Wheatear.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 105mm x 125mm.

Cover drawing for the 1992 Huddersfield Birdwatchers Club Report.

Short Eared Owl.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 95mm x 125mm.

Illustration from the 1992 Huddersfield Birdwatchers Club Report.

Rising Trout.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 60mm x 100mm.

Illustration from; Richard Jefferies: A Spirit Illumined. Published by the Richard Jefferies Society. 1987.

Male Redstart.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 85mm x 125mm.
Illustration from the 1992 Huddersfield Birdwatchers Club Report.

One for the Pot.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 60mm x 100mm.
Illustration from; Richard Jefferies: A Spirit Illumined. Published by the Richard Jefferies Society. 1987.

Goldcrest.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 60mm x 80mm.
Drawn for a British Birds Magazine Competition.

Brown Hare.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 145mm x 100mm.

Dipper.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 60mm x 80mm.

Drawn for a British Birds Magazine Competition.

Churchyard Barn Owl.

Pen and Ink Scraperboard. 60mm x 100mm.
Illustration from; Richard Jefferies: A Spirit Illumined. Published by the Richard Jefferies Society. 1987.

Colours 3 and 4

Quick post to show the next two colours on the new linocut. Only one more to go now.

Further progress

Printed the second colour on the new linocut and already the subject matter is pretty obvious. Partly because the ink drawing on the lino block has also transfered onto the paper. Hopefully though this will be covered by the final black. I normally use a chinagraph pencil to draw out the design on the block but this time I used a permanent marker, I was surprised at it showing on the print though so it will be back to the trusty chinagraph for the next print.

I had hoped to get more work done this week, but I've been busy framing up a number of scraperboard drawings to take to a gallery next week. I got all the mounts cut without too much problem (ten of them), and then thought I'd start framing them this evening. But as I've just broken the glass on the first frame, enough is enough and its time for a bottle of beer.

A different subject

A different subject matter with this project and an intention to keep to a more limited number of colours. This should be finished in five. We'll see how it goes.

Experimenting

Beachcombings.
8 colour reduction linocut. 120mm x 180mm.
Edition of 6.

Not my usual subject matter, but I've been trying a different registration system and needed a fiddly complicated sort of composition. So this assortment of pebbles, limpet and mussel shells and a crab collected by Owen and Carly on Llandudno beach came in handy.

The registration worked better. I only lost two prints, which by my standards is a massive improvement on the old system.

Works in progress but nothing finished

This week has been a busy one of having lots of projects on the go, but with nothing completed to show for it. I have two linocuts in progress, one drawn out on the block and another part way through printing; done as an experiment to test my new registration jig.

I also started this acrylic on canvas. Shown here after about an hours work on the underpainting. Although work has stalled on this as I quite like it as it is and I'm not sure where to take it from this stage. I want to carry this freshness through to the finished painting without getting bogged down and overworking it. I'm just not sure how to do that at the moment. It may be time to turn it to the wall for a couple of weeks and forget about it, before coming back to it later.

Frenchlands Tower- Moffat, Annandale

Rising Moon Over Frenchlands Tower- Moffat, Annandale.
7 colour reduction linocut. 180mm x 270mm.
Edition of 3.

Midwinter in Dumfries and Galloway, the original sketch was drawn on a bitterly cold New Years day afternoon a couple of years ago.

For this print I wanted the first colour grading from blue to pale from the top down and blue to a pinkish colour from the bottom up. If I was clever enough this should have been done in one pass. However, not wanting to end up with a muddy mess I did it in two. Printing the top half first and then the bottom half. Even doing it this way wasn't entirely successful hence the rather small edition size.

This crumbling ruin stands on a small hill top overlooking the Annan Valley to the east of the town of Moffat.