The Lighter Side of Graveyards

As was the case for the last print, I had to overcome a very oppressive darker color to allow the brightness of future colors to show. The second color on "Memorial Day" was a very dark shadow gray, and the next color is a bright pink. I printed a buffer of plain white, which brought the color down to a more manageable shade.

The method at work here is called "reduction printing," in which one block is used, and areas are cut away for each color. The drawback to this method is trying to maintain the brightness of colors; you can usually tell a reduction print by the darkness of the colors; I have had prints start of with explosive, bright color, only to end up a muddy mess. A few talented printers out there have somehow beat the system (I recommend Gordon Mortenson as a prime example). I intend to be in that small crowd.

As you can see in the above photo, the white has buffered the dark gray back to a very light gray. This should accept the light pink very easily. It is hard to get an idea of where the print is going in this view, but in this backlit picture, you get a better idea of what I'm going for.

The next challenge is creating a vibrant pink and presenting it in a way that is going to breath some life into what at this stage looks like a very cold print!