Thanksgiving

Weekend- Cut duck out as seen before

            This week was full of printing.  I was able to carve the first layer of my duck print by using the dremmel in the metals studio.  It made the process go much faster, but still took me a considerable amount of time to complete.  The first carvings represent the lightest layers of my image and I have yet to carve into the cutout image of my rubbery ducky. 

            After cutting the duck image out, I decided to alter the shading on the image a little bit so that it can be more decipherable from the background of my block.  I will also be able to print the duck in different colors, making it standout further as well.

(4 hours)

Monday/Tuesday

            A majority of my printing took place the past two days.  I was able to get the studio all to myself and print some great images.  I first wanted to test print my duck block; making sure that the nose made form the dremmel didn’t overwhelm my image.  I decided to use a light purple, as the base color because I think it will complement the yellow from my duck nicely.

            Next, I printed y train image and I am very happy with how it turned out.  I like the departure from my other train and I like the stark difference between the white and black on the paper.  Another, “happy mistake” was my block after I cleaned it.  All of the cut lines filled in with black ink and now I think the block itself could be a part of my show.

(6 hours)

For this coming week…

            Even though it’s Thanksgiving, I hope to get a little work done over break.  I want to sketch more toys from my childhood when I go home, as well as take pictures for reference.  This will definitely help me think of a new idea for a block.  When I return Sunday afternoon I also hope to have enough energy to print a little before my thoughts are muddled by our ever approaching mid-year presentations. 

Pictures

Before

Cut

After

Rubber Ducky!

My Rubber Ducky

Last Friday/Saturday/Sunday

Over the weekend I was able to start on my new block.  I was a little concerned at first that the image of the rubber ducky was too abstract, but after I started to break it down into different colors, I was able to see more clearly what it is gong to look like in the end.  I really do like this image because it is starting to give my toys a little bit more of a context and although I may have gone a little crazy in the background I like the direction that I am headed.  I think for my next few images I will try and give them a background as well, but try and make the toys more apparent.  I was also able to sketch a lot more over the weekend and I really like this break from actual woodcarving. 

(5 hours)

Tuesday/Thursday

During studio time I started to really consider which image I wanted to transfer to my new block.  I had drawn a lot of the images in charcoal, but seemed to be more attracted to my blind contour drawing of the train.  I realize that the image is also very different then what I have been doing, but I like the fact that I now have a little bit of variety in the my woodblock images.  I transferred the image to my block and started carving just the lines out and realized that the image is probably going to be too stark for my liking.  Therefore, I plane to add a subtle wood grain in the background possibly to mimic a wood floor.  I am curious to see how this image will work with my image of the dollhouse, rocking horse, and now my rubber ducky.  I don’t know if I am going to include this image in the final show, but I am happy that I will have a chance to try it out. 

(6 hours)

Yesterdays Critique

I really enjoyed yesterdays critique with Larry Cressman.  I thought his comments were very helpful and gave me great ideas for the coming weeks.  One thing that I am very interested in trying out is something that Amanda and Larry both suggested.  My rubber ducky block seems to be too abstract and they said that I should cut out the image of the rubber ducky and work on it separately.  This way I can add multiple colors to my block while also drawing more attention to the toy.  I am very excited about this and I am planning on starting right away!

For this weekend and week…

Today I am heading to the woodshop, which I am terrified of, to cut my rubber ducky out of my block.  I plan on then carving into the block using a dremel, which is a mechanized drill that will help to cut my carving time in half.  The lines on my block are very intensive and I hope that using this tool will help to make the process go faster.  It will also help because the wood is so tough and it would be very hard for me to carve using just my wood tools.

I hope to also finish carving my train block and print a few proofs before Monday.

And images to come! 

Exploration

This week was an exploration for me.  Last week Janie had told me to try drawing and so I decided to stop rushing into wood blocks, for a little, and start sketching.  I began with charcoal and tried to draw as big as I could, which proved to be not so easy.  However, the sketches did start to open me up to new angles and possibilities for my train image.  When I did a blind contour drawing of the train I was actually really excited about the results.  I think that for my next woodblock instead of doing tons of textures, I am going to try and do a simple line drawing.

Since I can’t actually stop carving because it is just something I have to do, I had an image of a teddy bear that I was cutting in to on the side.  I’m not going to include this image in the show, but it was more for experimentation and gave me the opportunity to take a break when I grew tired of sketching.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday

This weekend I worked on a lot of sketches of the train at different angles.  I used charcoal, white charcoal, pen, sharpie, pencil, and some colored pencil (that I didn’t end up liking).  I thought my explorations were very successful after a while and it was definitely a necessary step in my artistic process.

(3 hours)

Monday/Wednesday

I had been sketching all weekend, so I felt the need to explore other ideas for a wood block, maybe one that didn’t include a train.  I was thinking of toys that are common and relate to a particular part of our lives and when Endi mentioned, in class, that our next project was on water he sparked an idea.  I chose to do a rubber ducky in a bathtub because I feel as if this is an iconic image.  Also, I wanted to try a block that not only highlighted the toy, but also gave it some context and a background.  I’m very excited about this reduction print and I can’t wait to get started.

(3 hours)

Tuesday/Thursday

I worked on my grant for some of the time and later continued to sketch the two metal toys that I had bought from Treasure Mart.  I also was able to transfer my image of a rubber ducky onto my birch block so that I can begin to layout the different colors/layers of my cuts.

(6 hours)

For this coming week…

I think it would be beneficial if I sketched different toys as well and did more drawings in blind contour.  I’m excited about this new possibility and can’t wait to see if it transfers well on to wood.

I would also like to start to carve into my new wood block and possibly print the image of my teddy bear by hand just so I can see how the image is coming along. 

And Some Printing…

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

This weekend I worked further into carving my train block and was able to print a few proofs.  I was a happy with my experimentation in cutting, but I am not satisfied with the overall print.  I feel that it does explore different textures, however, it doesn’t really highlight the toy in any way and the image competes with the stark black of the background. 

I was also excited to print my second block on top of my large dollhouse image and I am very happy with the results.  I feel like the second outline gives the dollhouse a lot more presence and I’d like to think of this as a finished block/image. 

(7 hours)

Tuesday/Thursday

Due to the fact that I had done so much printing over the weekend, I decided to just truck through and continue.  I was able to print a few more color blocks with my dollhouse and even one with my rocking horse.  I am very pleased with my rocking horse image, although I would still like to make it a little more evident and correct some random marks in the corners of the block.  I also started a new woodcut of a teddy bear because I want to explore the texture of fur a little more.  I may continue to working on this block; however, after talking with Janie I may focus more on drawing for this coming week.

(6 hours)

On Thursday I was also able to talk with Janie for a while and she gave me some great ideas along with a great artist to look at, Carol Wax.  Wax is able to create a sense of place for an object, even when it is floating in space.  Her extreme use of lights and darks create a very stark contrast and I would really like to work on my ability to create shadows within my own wood blocks. 

We also discussed what I needed to do for this coming week and I need to resort back to drawing.  I seem to feel the urge to immediately start carving an image and what I really need to do is take the time to workout the perfect image to carve.  So for this week, and weekend, I hope to sketch a lot on large sheets of paper.  I will probably still focus on my toy train, but make more of an effort to highlight different angles and viewpoints.  Also, I am may continue working further on my train carving because I don’t find it that successful, and may become tired of drawing at one point.

To answer some questions…

I have been expanding my horizons more on the types of toys I am going to use, but mainly they will focus on classic American toys.  I say I am expanding because originally I was just going to focus on wooden toys, but I am now experimenting with a metal slinky and a furry teddy bear.

I also planed on using little color, but after this weekends experimentation I may have changed my mind.  I really like my yellow and brown dollhouse, but I do still like pure black and white images.