Lino Cuts

Happy Easter, everyone.  We had lots of extra activities going on through Holy Week here, so I am having a bit of trouble getting myself back on schedule after getting home from traveling.  As a result, this post comes up a day later than my usual Saturday post.

I have the honor to design the poster art for our local Rain Forest Festival this year, and with that in mind, I have been cutting some new stamps.  Have a look:

I begin my stamp cutting process by drawing the image in a sketch book, using a real soft pencil, which facilitates the transfer of the design to the stamp block surface.  (This is a raven, which we have lots and lots of).

  And, with apologies to Nadine, here is a wolf, maybe looking pretty friendly and domesticated.  Once the drawing is complete, I lay it face down on top of the cutting surface of the soft-kut block and rub the back with my bone folder to transfer the image.

Using Speedball linoleum cutting tools and the transferred lines, I carve into the block, removing the rubber where I do not want ink to adhere.  

 After the stamp is cut, I check my work by inking with a black stamp pad and printing on sketch book paper.  Once I like what I've got, I often print the new stamp off on a fresh piece of soft-kut to produce a mirror image.

Here are some test prints of the raven and wolf stamps.  I think the wolf looks a bit fiercer now, do you agree?

Watch out for tricksters!  Tomorrow is April First which is a day to trick and joke your friends in this country.  Do you have April Fools Day where you live? 

Daily Drawing

pigma pen in 8x6 gamma

pigma pen and inktense pencils in 8x6 gamma

pigma pen and inktense pencils in 8x6 gamma

pigma pen with intense pencils and white gel pen in 8x6 gamma

I offer a glimpse into some of the drawings done last week in Denver for your consideration today.  I purchased a pigma pen with a thick, brush-like tip as well as a felt-tip style one called a 'Graphic', and am enjoying the variety of line weight these additions to my pen arsenal afford.

Off to the Might Mighty Day Job, one more day and then the studio at last tomorrow!  Happy day to you, Dear Readers.

DC - Egg (back home again)

Apologies to fellow DC'ers for being late in posting my Egg images, but travel back to our island interrupted my regular schedules over the weekend.  At last I am home again; here are two takes on the Egg theme presented us by Norma.

Fresh eggs at my friend Polly's kitchen, hard boiled for our luncheon salad.

Thinking about eggs in my 8x6 gamma with pigma pen and inktense pencils

There are a nest full of eggs for you to consider, linked at Norma's egg-cellent blog.

Blessings to you as Holy Week begins, and a Happy Easter to all!

Denver in March

The cottonwood trees 

are bare

along the canal

where I walk in the early morning cold.

DC - Willow

The breath of spring

calls a very special willow

to venture forth

on our fair Island.

'Pussy Willow' - pigma 'brush' pen and Inktense pencils in 8x6 gamma sketchbook

Our willow theme, brought to us by a very special Blogland friend and painter, Carole, also made me think of my favorite kind of furniture: the kind constructed of branches.  (So of course I had a go at drawing that, too)!

'Willow Chair' - Inktense pencils in 8x6 gamma

Have a seat while you wander through the willows over at Carole's exciting blog.

As I Leave...

Today I hope to be leaving for Other Parts of the World.  

However, it is snowing.  

Hard. 

 Alaska Airlines says call back in two hours.

 Sigh.

Anyway, this delay gives me a chance to make my usual Wednesday appearance here in Blogland. 

I am posting pics of the work I did last week:

 ...making collagraph plates with fun foam on cardboard...

...foam texture plates,

 and lots of monoprints on sandwashed cotton broadcloth from Dharma Trading Company:

my wall of work in progress

These monoprints on cloth are waiting for me to come back and stitch them into completion.  It's a good way to leave things, I think, sort of in mid-stream.

See you when I get to Denver.

(Come ON, Flight 65!  You can do it)!

Moon - DC

'The Moon has a face like the clock in the hall

She shines on thieves on the garden wall'.
-Robert Lewis Stevenson

'Ol' Devil Moon' - pigma pen and magazine snippet in 8x6 epsilon

'The Blue Moon Remembering Her Former Phases' - Stabilo pencil in 8x6 gamma

 Our Drawing Challenge took us to the moon and back this week, guided by the talented navigator of all things artistic, Patrice.  Have a swoon at the rest of the moons at her interesting blog.

Daily Drawing

Continuing my practice of (nearly) daily drawing, I offer here some of the recent developments in my sketch books:

I am doing exercises from Wendy Hollender's book 'Botanical Drawing in Color'...

(Thanks, Lynne, for the recommendation of this FINE text book!)

and just fooling around as usual...

...had a little fun with an old Vogue magazine and my glue stick...

...and creating a page for my new sketch book, started on the first of the month, when the Sailor got home, so happy!

She was drawn with one of those lovely water soluble Stabilo pencils and the water brush my Mom gave me.

pigma pen and prismacolor pencils in my new gamma 8x6 book

We are relishing a sunny week - hope you are relishing, whatever you have where you are!

Process/Product

Sometimes I feel like I am just spinning my creative wheels, not able to really get started because I don’t know what I want to say.  The past couple of weeks have been like that, drifty and discouraging.  

detail, work in progress, textile paint monoprint on cotton, machine stitching

A couple of helpful posts by artists whose work I admire have given me renewed enthusiasm.  Jane Dunnewold is a guest artist this month over at And Then We Set It On Fire.  Her essay on using the right tools lifted my spirits as she reminded me that the work I have been doing recently – sketching, making new stencils and masks, thinking – is by no means wasted time but indeed, critical to creative success.  

masks coated with gel medium drying on waxed paper

detail, textile paint monoprint on hand dyed cotton

Yesterday’s post at The Fairy Yellow Bug Queen also cheered me.  Norma writes: ‘Nothing is perfect, in life, or in art. I am ignoring the imperfect bits and won't bore you by pointing them out. My complete purpose in doing these pieces is to learn. I am having so much fun…’.

detail, textile paint monoprint with hand and machine stitching

detail, textile paint monoprint with beads and machine stitching

I am off to the studio today with an attitude of gratitude for the creative PROCESS rather than a demand of myself for a steady stream of PRODUCT.  Thanks to all of you in Blogland for your contagious enthusiasm for art and life with all its beauty and magic.  I appreciate you!