Coming Into Focus

 

It should be clear, at this point, where this print is headed. Three more colors by my design, and I'm pretty happy with the whole thing.

I never actually fleshed out what I'm putting in the lower left. "General vegetation" was the plan, so I was preparing to go with just some cartoony imagining of "a bush."

But then last weekend we stopped at an estate sale, a bizarre and rambling midmod with an entranceway flanked by yew. We had an enormous yew at my childhood home. I truly love yew. So now, all I want is yew. We'll be looking for yew in a couple of days. The red here will work well for the yew berries...which yew...er, you... won't be able to see because they're too small. But they'll be there!

Fall Into Place

I feel like I'm returning to my roots a bit here with this one. When I first started printmaking, I admired the work of other printmakers who captured the beauty in everyday scenes. I tried - oh how I tried - to emulate them. 

I remember one print I tried to do, a simple one with a bountiful lilac bush outside a weathered clapboard house. Hooboy, it was a stinker. I knew nothing about color, or how to study one's subject. Hell, I don't even think I worked from a drawing.

This one has been different. Not only have I solved the bulk of my technical issues, but I have learned to really think through the color sequence.

I'm still not sure why I insist on starting with the darker colors. Maybe the challenge excites me.

There's several colors left, so stay tuned for how it falls together.