Dry In Time

I was able to get "Amy's Hill (7 color reduction woodcut) ready in time to enter for the Erie County Fair creative arts competition. I'd love to revisit it when I have more time to spend -- I really pushed myself here, as I was also on a 90-day cartooning quest.

I'm happy with it overall, but I can see all the places where I rushed. I'm currently designing a jig that will allow me to do rainbow rolls again -- the gradation of color helps to give the impression of depth. But I love the colors and the movement -- the sense of movement in the grass. I think the seed buds of the grass came out really well. The clouds would have looked much better on a graded sky.

Also up for consideration is "Canyons of Buffalo." I'm really feeling the pull back to the studio, so I'm hoping to report more on here.

Hope you can make it to the Erie County Fair this year, and please stop into the Creative Arts building (in the grandstand) and see what your friends and neighbors have been up to. Careful though -- you may get inspired!

The River's End

I'm not sure if I'm done yet. I was considering one last color, a very dark purple/black, which would mostly be the trees and the river wall. But I don't know if it will really add much to the print.

I'm very happy with this print, so happy that I've worked out the ink that has plagued my work for so long. Had I known how well this would print, I would have taken a few more risks with detail. But, that's how it goes.

I confess that it's a bit safe for a competitive piece. It doesn't have the color of "Sunflower Farm" (2014) or the light-play of "Sweet Breeze" (2015). But it conveys a mood I often feel around Buffalo's big old industrial buildings.

I'm proud of the piece, mostly because of the registration. For a decade I've used a jig that often caused me problems while printing, and sometimes moved the register n mid print. I've gotten rid of all that in favor of a kento system, which has been a pleasure to work with.  To illustrate how dead-on the register is, look at the doorway of the silo on the bottom left. Inside the doorway is a little lite -- this little spot has held through 7 colors. I usually lose at least a quarter of my prints due to register. This time, I only lost one.

I will post it when it's all dressed up in a frame and ready for the Fair.

The End

Here she is, as yet untitled and still drying on the line. There's a little shine from the light on there, but above the screen are a row of tree tops that print black. Better pictures to come over on the ETSY site.

Posts will be sporadic as I gun it for my November 1 show. check out Napping Cat Press on Facebook to get updates on posts.

Thank you for stopping by, and please drive home safe. Goodnight!

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.

Hidden Gems

My wife and I are road trip junkies; every weekend finds us lost somewhere in the hills and valleys surrounding Buffalo. This is a great time of year, full of freshly mown grass, bright blue skies and roadside stands bursting with nature's bounty.

Our artists' eyes dart along the landscape, looking for interesting ideas and compositions. This work in progress, "Memorial Day," was a happy accident. As we were driving around the village of Cuba, we missed a turn to a wildlife management area. I turned around by ducking into a small cemetery, still decorated with flags from Memorial Day the weekend before.

The aged stones agains the bright flowers and lush greens of the lawn and surrounding trees left a mark on me, and I knew I would have to mark up some paper when I got home.

This is the first two colors, a very light gray and a dark gray. I'm very nervous about this one, as I need to create bright colors over the very dark gray. Please stay tuned as I try to navigate this one without it ending up in the print graveyard.

Autumn Camping

Last night I finished this print, still untitled, and I have to say that I am extremely pleased with the result. I apologize for the picture quality (camera phone, poor light). The colors really seen to come out with the addition of the brown and black.

For those in the know, this is the second print I have done of one of these small vintage trailers. The first, "Little Camper" (2009) was a favorite at shows. It was never my favorite, believing I could do better work. That was...wow...four years ago now. I'm more confident with my style, I'm working in a larger format, and I have become far more knowledgeable of the subject. We see these beautiful little midcentury gems all over in our travels, and while I wasn't looking for a "trademark" subject, I can guarantee you will be seeing more of these in the near future.

"Little Camper" (2009) Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Dean
 

 

And We're Back

Well, I sure do need to focus, don't I.

There are two more colors to go on this one, but I'm very skeptical about how it's all going to come together. I guess I'll just shut up about it until I'm done.

That Awkward Stage

So, now the print enters the awkward stage. You start gambling on colors, maybe start improvising here and there. The only thing to guide you at this point is the vision you have in your mind, the one that got you started down this road in the first place.

I particularly hate printing light colors over dark colors. Although this state completes the form of the trailer, the details of the woods around it are only hinted at. As I mentioned in the last post, I knew that the yellow going over the turquoise would present special challenges.

However, I added red to the yellow ink (which has a naturally green cast). The extra red helped curb the color's tendency to blend with the turquoise and make a lime green. The result is a gold that I think will blend well with the oranges and reds to come. I hemmed and hawed about printing another yellow, but I think the gold will serve the autumnal feel well.

Every print I've done has had this awkward stage, and I've learned to just push through it. I know I'll be rewarded if I stop fretting about it and concentrate on carving and printing the next colors.

Five colors to go!

Loon-y Tune

I'm never sure I'm going to like a print until it's done. Reduction woodcuts -- where the colors are built up on the paper through successive cuttings and printings -- are particularly stressful, because not only do you not know how the print will look until you get to the end, but because the block is destroyed in the process, you can't go back...unless you go ALL the way back.

As I mentioned last post, the concept of the drawing was inspired by "Maroon," one of the color poems by voice artist Ken Nordine. My loon here is supposed to be singing a tune to an orange moon. Well, I lost the orange, but I really needed to do something with the block to get some ink on my fingers. It's been a remarkably dry few years, and being in our new home, I knew I needed to get back to work, to blow off the dust, scrape off the rust, and rediscover the passion for printmaking.

This is state #2, the color being a very dark muddy green. The lines on the moon are signifying sound rippling the air (the loon's cry). I agonized over how to make that work, and I can't say I feel successful about it. I wish I'd taken them out. Oh, well, that's printmaking.

Luckily, I only printed six. Pretty sure you won't find them on Etsy. But I'm feeling less rusty, less dusty, and ready to hit the next one out of the park.

The Name Game: RESULTS ARE IN!

The deadline for entries was 3:30 this afternoon. I had eleven serious entries (and about 8 entertaining ones), and tonight I presented them, without the names of their creators, to my lovely wife Amy, who chose two finalists. After a few minutes of debate, it was decided to combine the two entries and award prints to both entrants. And so I would like to thank Jerry Ginley and Audley Sue Wing for naming my print "Azure Oasis."

A new contest is coming up in a few weeks, so stay tuned, and thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the contest.

Napping Cat PRESSED!

I hadn't planned it, but this print was made at the same time as the Oasis print (see below), and used similar colors.

In case your computer can't pick up the subtle colors, the moon is pale yellow, and the moon glow and highlights are a very pale moonglow  blue. In fact, that's what I call the formula. Moonglow Blue. It's also a good band name.

The areas where it looks like the ink is missing are areas where the board had wide grain. Although I like having the grain show in my work, I found it was distracting in the large field of black. I attempted to overload the block with black ink. However, when going through the press, the pressure would cause the paper to skate over that thick layer of ink. Ergo, I lost five on this edition. The good news, there are five beautiful pieces available at etsy.com (click on the press at the top of this page).

I put the print on the mantelpiece and my wife and I spent some time discussing it. Then we both got quiet. One yawned, then the other. I recommend this print for a bedroom, maybe a child's bedroom. Because I'm getting drowsy right now. Look at that happy, napping cat. Sooooo snuggguhwqdddddddbnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Ahoy!

Still untitled, this is the very latest off of the press here at NCP. A ship tossed in angry foaming seas, watched by a sentinel deep in the shroud of fog, this is my favorite print so far.

The image is 6"x4", and is 8 colors of oil-based ink on lightweight off-white French-made paper.

The print was inspired by a quote, now forgotten, concerning hope, which I had read during a particularly dark and worrisome time in December. This image came to me, and I am thrilled that I was able to recreate the image on paper.

While it is common to print from lightest color to darkest, I chose to print the water darkest to lightest, hoping that the water would take on more texture and a more "mottled" appearence, particularly in the foam.
For information on acquiring this or other prints, please visit my etsy.com shop.

Labatt Streamliner State #5

First, a big congratulations to Mr. James Jordan who identified this print in its 4th state as the Labatt's Streamliner. I fell in love with this vehicle one winter evening when Amy and I were downtown one evening. We stopped to watch a building being torn down when the Streamliner passed us. Already interested in early 20th century design, this baby spoke to me. Literally, it spake. It said, "Drink some Labatt's. And I did. And it was good.

Back to the print. The color in the 5th state was a happy accident. Thinking that the red was going to affect any color I put over it, I formulated a special color that, had this been screen printing, would have ended up looking like a light gray when printed over red. Ah, but this is NOT screen printing, and the color did not change much at all. In the photo, it looks gray, but is actually a very light green, perhaps the color of dried moss. It is a very retro color (usually found in Nike missile silo basements and jails of the period) and complemented the red so nicely, I decided to change my color plans. The light color of state 5 was necessary to combat the dark of the red. The fact is, I should have done the background first, as I usually do, but unfortunately was already well into the print when I realized my mistake.

A little closer now....

Okay, here we are on state #4. It should be crystal clear to all you playing the game. Just a couple more colors to go. What's the name of this classic Labatt's beer truck?

(HINT: "Classic Labatt's Beer Truck is NOT the answer)

A little info for the print geeks -- this is a reduction print with planned 7 colors on a single 6"x4" block of birch plywood, Renaissance Graphics oil-based ink on very heavy (too heavy) Rives off-white paper. The script for the logo was made using my wife's engraving pen which she uses for her glass work. And yes, I got permission to use it!