slightly wonky

Last night’s woodblock class was pretty good.  I had a new block to incorporate into the mix, luckily.  I also spent the whole time printing, which is what I like to do.  I ALSO got to choose the colors, which is good.  Sometimes, I just use the colors that have been put out.  Last night, however, I selected the colors, which made a big difference for me.  I prefer when the colors are more transparent.  It seems that many of the colors that we use (which are previously mixed colors) have some white in them, which makes them a bit opaque.  This isn’t the effect that I want.  Perhaps next week, I’ll ask to mix in some transparent medium.

Here is the first one that I did:

I have no idea why the picture has such an orange cast to it.  Anyway…this print started with the yellow layer, then I printed the dark brown block, and last I printed the teal block.  I was moderately happy with it. I felt that the white was too constrained, though, so I tried again:

I’m happier with the white in this print.  Here is a detail of it:

As I only have two carved blocks in this series and of this size, I sort of ran out of ideas of what to do (besides mixing more colors).  I tried to experiement a little, but I wasn’t happy with the outcome:

Ech.  Needs work.  In mulling over ideas with my super helpful teacher, I felt that adding some “chine colle” or collage would help.  So, I took another piece of paper, and just started randomly printing on it.   I plan to rip up this paper and layer it onto the print above, in an attempt to help it along.  Here is the sacrificial page:

Kind of interesting, in an off-kilter sort of way.  I ran out of time, and couldn’t do more layering.  I also ran out of the bright ochre color.  Too bad!  I’ll see if I can mix up more next week.  I do like these colors together, though.  I also hope that I can carve another block.

It’s going to be another sweltering day.  I can already feel my brain dulling with the pending heat.

Can anyone out there recommend some interesting woodblock artists to look at? 

Anyone out there also doing printmaking?  (Do you have a website that I can look at?) 

If any of you out there have either an ipad or an iphone…there is an app that I would LOVE to have.   It’s “Wreck this App” by Keri Smith.  She is that super cool, highly unconventional author.  It’s basically an app for making crazy, messy art.  So fun!!!!  If anyone out there gets it, let me know how it is.  I want it…but alas…no iphone!  Here is the link to her blog which has a video on it.  What do you think????  So fun, right?????  I want it!