Floating An Idea

Etsy shop is now back up. Just click on the picture of my press!

Whatever your impression of Buffalo, you haven't experienced it without a Kayak trip down the Buffalo River (not to confuse it with the Niagara River, on which a fellow DID try to navigate Niagara Falls once; that didn't go so well). A blend of rich history, the heroic reclamation of the land by nature, rust vs wood. Stop by the shop for more details!

See You Next Year

It was an especially fruitful year in the studio. I'm excited about the new things I'll be posting in 2015. Please check back often for updates. Please note that the Etsy shop is now closed for the season. Please follow me on Facebook (as Napping Cat Press) or feel free to email me at nappingcatpress97@gmail.com.

Have a great holiday, and thank you all for a great 2014!
--Jeff

Sale Ends Sunday!

CHRISTMAS SALE ENDS SUNDAY 12/21/2014
Click on the press at the top of the page to get the great holiday deal! Order now for Christmas delivery!

Catnapped!

When I got home yesterday afternoon, Amy had just completed her first prototype frame, and I couldn't wait to show it here. Again, the image is about 3x3.25, so the frame is about 4x4, or a hair larger. I love it around the print.








I finished the second in the ornament collaboration series last night. The idea of the crystal-like edge came to me yesterday morning on the way to work. The real thing is not too far off here in Western New York.

Of course, as I was trying to take pictures this morning, I had a little visitor. That's Ticey, short for Solstice, and she's my buddy. I don't have many pictures of her that aren't blurry, as she's a seriously active cat.

You may want to make note of the drawing, just visible in the upper left corner. You'll probably see something related to it in the next week or so.

My Ship Came In

Here's a  terrible picture of a pretty nice print. I had been planning a different print altogether, but that one needs more drawing out. To keep my printing muscles limber, I decided to do a fairly simple print. Clocking it at a mere 5 colors, it was a fun weekend job.

Boats and water are a recurring subject in my work. This is an irony, since I get terribly, awfully, horribly seasick. Honestly, I have no idea how my family came to America back in the day. But I love the idea of water, and boats, and the whole nautical image.

The palette here is blues and grays, which works very well for this print. I am planning a companion piece featuring the windmills along the Lake Erie shore. That's going to be down the road a bit. Right now I want to jump on something with some bright colors. Any requests?

Breezin' Along

State 1, Rainbow Roll

State#2, bright white

Print on the line, backlit after white

State#4, with light gray, and light blue

Red All Over

Traditionally in printing, commercial and art, the convention is to put the lightest colors down first. This print has been a bit different. For example, I began with dark gray and moved to the lighter grays. There were two reasons for doing this, the first being that it is easier to take out a fine line than to cut around it. I try to avoid doing the "easy" thing because it actually often ends up either causing bigger problems or ruining the job outright. Having done this particular print a few times already, I knew that dark to light was the way to go. The second thing that led me down the dark-to-light path is that I knew I was going to have to print the rainbow roll as the fourth state. If there were going to be coverage issues, dark gray showing through the blended sky would not work for this print (whereas they were okay for the duck print).

Why not print the rainbow roll first? I could have done that, but again, if the purple or pink had showed up anywhere on the movie screen, it would have looked like moths had eaten through the picture to reveal the sky behind it. Not what I wanted.

So, with two blues and two yellows ahead, I need to plot out my colors carefully. The ink is laying down very nice, so I'm not concerned about coverage too much at this point. If there was another gray on the agenda, I might be tempted to print that next just to give me a clean base on which to build the cars. But there is not a gray. But there is a dark red, and I have chosen to use the dark red as my base. On the dark red will sit a dark blue. The dark blue will support the light blue on top. In an odd choice, but one that works, will be a dark yellow (which will have a greenish tone). Then a lighter yellow on top of that.

The key to a vibrant reduction print is understanding color and how to use the colors underneath to the best advantage of the colors on top.

Premium Blend

Working in the larger format is a fairly recent development. Up until a few years ago, I worked almost exclusively in 5x7 image areas. The few attempts at larger 9x7 blocks always seemed to end in disaster. After I bought my press, I gave the larger size another try, and never looked back.

Unfortunately, I have been wary of using the rainbow roll on the larger blocks, mainly because the brayer I use is only 8", and that poses some challenges for the rainbow roll. I did have a 12" roller I bought several years ago, and I tried it out on this print, only to find the roller was uneven, and useless to me. There's $25 I won't see again.

I could have just done the rainbow roll on the top half of the block. I've done that before, but it has always caused problems with the successive colors, as they don't lay down properly. My solution was to print cleanly over the top, then print the bottom just to even out the ink. It worked very well, though right now the print looks scary. After the next color, a dark red, things should be back to normal.

Let's All Go to the Lobby

I have attempted this print before. If practice makes perfect, we should be seeing a real treat emerge here. The ink is laying down very well, and I'm not seeing any of the issues I had with the duck print.

This state defines what I love most about reduction woodcut printing: at a certain pint, you begin to see the bones of what will become the finished print. You can start to see where the cars will be, where the features of the cars will be.

The toughest part of this print is next, a two color sky. There are a few names for this in printing. In commercial printing and in screen printing, it's called a "split" or a "split fountain"; in relief printing, it's a "rainbow roll." In any case, when it's done well, it adds dimension and complexity to a print. At right
is a blurry photo of a split I did on a screen as I was figuring out colors.

Look Out! Duck!

A nice busy weekend in the studio, and we have the finished mallard print.  The next-to-last color, a dark brown, higlighted the pattern of plumage and also brought out a lot of the vegetation reflections in the upper half. Clearly now you can see where it's going.

I really liked the print at this point, and to have left it here wouldn't have been much of a loss. However, I really like the finished look a small amount of black gives a print

Here now is the print with the block next to it.

I think the black gives the subject a lot more depth, pushing the background into a softer focus and bringing the ducks up off the page.

As this thread was about explaining the reduction process, here again is the block I started with. There's not much left of it now. This, of course, makes a reduction print edition truly LIMITED, as no more prints can be made with the block.

I began with 12, lost 3 outright, and after ispection I believe the final edition will probably be five.

Duck, Be A Lady Tonight

This is where a print all starts to come together. I've written before about how a reduction print goes through a phase where it just really doesn't look like anything. I call it the awkward phase. But there's always a moment when you can really see what the final print will look like. For the duck print, that moment is now.

Carving away the brown of the sky reflection helped the shapes come out, and the light brown really gives you an idea of what the final composition is. I like the brown in the water forming the ripples and rings, but I need to be careful not to let them get too dark with the dark brown and black to come. If I can, I am going to shave those high spots down to minimize them becoming darker. I really want the ducks and the birdhouse to pop out when the final darker layers go down.

Floating in the Sky

Here now we have a sense of place for the ducks as the body of water, reflecting the sky, becomes evident. It will be tricky cutting for the next color, as I will need to maintain the shapes of the ducks and the birdhouse. Printing also becomes trickier, as the roller will inevitably catch a few ridges of the cutaways. A few will be okay, but I want to avoid it as much as possible. I have used a mask at times for very small areas (I did so for the barn on "Sunflower Farm"). We'll see.

Three more colors should bring us to the end.

Nothing But Blue Sky

Quite a weekend down in the studio. I printed the second green, which came out great. But the wood grain really looked like a problem. I really thought my goose was cooked on this one, and I was fretting about the blue. Finally, reluctantly, I went ahead and mixed up the sky -- a dark blue which will be for water rings -- and went at it. Wincing, I pulled the print off the block and was really surprised that the missing areas didn't detract from the print at all. A couple of the prints had heavy grain on the duck's head, and they may have to be scrapped, but the majority turned out very well.

A lighter blue will print tonight and tomorrow, and then it's time to get that lady duck to show up!

Go Bills!

Duck bills, that is.

Color number 3. How green is my ducky?

If you still have a hard time grasping what is meant by "Reduction Print," this should nudge you toward some clarity. If you recall, the last color was a bright yellow, and that was for the duck's bills. So, I carved out the area on the block where the bills are. The next area I will be carving is the drake's head, so the color I want to put down is green.

My favorite color is green, and my favorite green is the green of the male duck. In the sunlight, it's actually a rainbow of greens. I'll be using two greens to give the head some depth, and the first green I wanted is a very yellow green. I chose the green to go over the yellow so that the transparent green ink would be enhanced by the yellow. Very happy with the color.

Ducks in a row.

And, of course, you see the islands of yellow now. And the next state will show an area of bright green. This is reduction woodcut printing.

You probably can see that I'm still having a coverage issue, an issue I'd hoped to get rid of through the use of shellac. Well, I'm a learner, and I've been taken to school. Two things have come to light. First, I should have put multiple layers of shellac over the block, letting them completely dry in between. Second, I sanded the block with 220 grit paper. Might as well have used steel wool. I thought I was using 600 grit.

Funny thing, though, is that most of the problem are is in the water, and will probably enhance the look.

But I'm taking no chances with my next print, which I'm already setting up. Sufficiently shellacked, and I have five grits of paper waiting. Here's a sneak peak of "Drive In," which has quite a story to it. But you'll have to wait

Ruffling Feathers

Last night I printed the yellow. You can see in this picture that some select areas are now showing -- feathers, specifically. The yellow will be for the bills, and will also support the next color, a bright green for the drake's head.

I am trying to get the brightest colors I can to really demonstrate the vision of a sunny day. I'm hoping the yellow won't be too garish, but choosing a very bright yellow will keep me focussed on keeping the other colors bright.

Graeige

You have to start somewhere, and the journey of a 9-color reduction woodcut begins with a single state. It's a rectangle. I apologize for the photo-I used my phone for this one, and the camera isn't very good. But as I like to say, "I have a camera. In my telephone. Which I carry around in my pocket and which uses insane technology and satellites and, hell, magic for all I know." So, in perspective, it's actually a good photograph.

Anyway, the color is a yellowish gray I'll call "Graeige." I did notice that, while the laydown of the ink was smoother, the shellac did not fill the grain as I'd suspected. In fact, the grain is pretty pronounced. Time will tell if it enhances or detracts from the final print.

I've worked out the order of colors, and the next color down will be yellow. The order of colors is very important in reduction woodcut, as each color is affected by the previous color. For example, if I printed the blue as the next color, I would have to add a little red to neutralize the greening effect of putting a blue over a yellow. That would also make the blue a lot darker than I want. So I have worked out a way for the blue to play off of the greens down the road.

I originally thought this print would be a quick six-color job, but after a rework I find that nine will be necessary. Check back to see more!

Getting My Ducks In A Row

I thought this might be a great opportunity to take you through a tour of what I do and how I do it. I have explained reduction printmaking so many times I just assume people understand. But it can be confusing if you don't really grasp the process. So I'm inviting you to watch as this print goes from the drawing table to the wall.

The first step is sketching out ideas for color, contrast and, most importantly, composition. This print is inspired by the main pond at Reinstein Woods. I will be participating at an art sale at a fundraiser for Reinstein Woods in November, and as we are avid park-goers, this seemed like an apropriate print to have ready for the show.

After a few sketches, I draw out the final drawing and rough out some colors. The print will be quite different than this painting.

I am doing something different with this print. I usually use a bare-wood block; I have been having some issues with ink not transfering evenly to the paper, and some other printmakers have suggested shellacking and sealing the block to help.

So, after finishing the painting, which I call a cartoon, I use tracing paper and trace the whole image. I then put the trace on the block and, using carbon paper, I transfer the image to the block.

I then started to shellac the wood, only to find that shellac is great for wiping carbon off of wood -- whoops! I retraced my tracing with pen, then shellacked the block.

This morning I sanded the block down to a glassy finish, and I hope to put the first color down tonight.

Behind The Print: Sunflower Farm

Again, just a quick overview of the reduction woodcut process: a single block of wood is cut, then printed, cut again, then printed, and so on in successive steps which slowly reveal the final image. For example, in the photo at left, you will see that there is a bright yellow and a dark yellow. The bright yellow was printed, then the wood was cut away where I wanted that bright yellow to be. Then when the dark yellow was printed, the bright yellow remained.

Of course, you will note that this print looks nothing like the final print you all now know as "Sunflower Far." Sometimes an artist gets so far before realizing they've made a mistake and need to start over. This is an especially frustrating moment for reduction printmakers, as it means going back to step one. The main thing with this print was the color. I didn't like the sky color, and wasn't happy with the contrast in the yellows. It took eight months before I went back and tried it again, with pretty good results, I think.

The place that the print is modeled after is real, save for some artistic licence. It exists somewhere in Western New York, on a little back road. It had a little sign written by the farmer's kids asking to please don't pick -- the sunflowers, so everyone could enjoy them. Nearby was a large block-lettered sign warning trespassers in no uncertain terms. Talk about contrast.

There is a barn, on a hill, but the vista isn't quite as dramatic. I wish I knew where it was, but we were so excited to see it, we paid no attention to where we were. That's the fate of us roadtrippers.

The Store Is Open!

"Desoto Motel" 2014

I finally got the etsy.com shop up and running. You can click on the link above the press at the top of the page, or the link included at the bottom of this post. There are a few kinks to work out yet. If you're not comfy doing business on the net, I'm happy to work around that. Just drop me a line at nappingcatpress97@gmail.com.




Click link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NappingCatPress

A Fair Critique

This year is the 175th Erie County Fair, one of the largest county fairs in the USA. This year, as is our tradition, Amy and I have participated in the Creative Arts exhibition. We started doing this about a dozen years ago, and love being part of all of the creativity of display in the building. We did stop for a couple of years while we were living in the city. Coming back home to Hamburg has reenergized us, and though it has been a slow climb back up to where we left off, this year we seem to have found our footing. In addition to a second place ribbon in the "Professional-Miscellaneous" division for "Sunflower Farm", I also came away with a white ribbon for my silly cherry pie rock (see previous post). But Amy came away with a patriotic-looking fistful of awards, a red for her pansy painted rock, a white for her awesome shell wreath, and a blue for her elegant beaded Christmas ornament.

If you head out to the Fair this year, make a point of stopping at the Creative Arts building (now located in the Grandstand) and check out the amazing work of your friends and neighbors. It looks to be the best fair ever!