One of my designs – Paperbark – was recently used on the cover for a new CD by musicians Christine Draeger, Lamorna Nightingale and Jocelyn Edey-Fazzone. It is called Eat Chocolate and Cry – Australian Flute Music 199-2009 featuring Australian contemporary composers. As part of the HSC Music course students must study this content and so this CD is designed a a resource as well as for highlighting contemporary composers and musicians.
The CD was launched at the Australian Music Centre in The Rocks Sydney at the end of September – more information about the cd can be found here.
Apart from all of that I do like the concept of listening to beautiful music, eating chocolate and crying!!
I have just finished this drawing of a Kookaburra.
Again it is drawn using light washed of watercolour and many many dots made with a fine nib rotring pen.
It is a drawing I started last year and is part of my mission to complete unfinished projects.
I am still carving one of the unfinished projects in my linocut work but am still keeping it low profile until it is completed. But it is exciting and I am hoping to get it completed in the next couple of weeks.
I am also designing a few new things. I have to take regular breaks from carving lino and so am mixing it up a bit with the illustration work, new designs for linocuts, some extension design work in relation to more commercial projects like cards and drawing. It sort of suits me to work this way in many respects I just need to be careful to aim to complete work as well as look at all the new possibilities!!
I have just finished this illustration of a Waratah – Telopia speciosissima. I know back to waratahs again! But the two local plants have put on a real show again this spring and I just couldn’t resist.
In this particular illustration I have used a very light wash of watercolour and use fine dots (many many many fine dots) with a Rotring pen to build up the image.
For those that may be interested in papers I have used an antique white rag based acid free watercolour paper. I like this paper with its slightly rough texture – it is cold pressed watercolour paper and so has a ‘bite’ on its surface. The hot pressed papers I mainly use for the linocuts has a smooth surface.
On the RSI/arm/shoulder/neck pain front – I am carving lino again but the advice from the physio is ‘pace yourself’ which is incredibly frustrating but I guess not as frustrating as 2 months without carving and not doing much else. Just need to keep up the exercises, pilates, anti-inflammatory meds, posture correction and warm wheat bags!! But still some progress forward is something to be grateful for.
Now onto a bit of carving this afternoon I think….can’t say what yet…but it is getting there albeit slowly….
I have finally started to get back to work – although slowly – and have just updated my website with the final version of the ‘Tawny Expressions’ linocut which I have called ‘Evry Move You Make…Watching YOU’.
The local ‘tawnies’ as they are affectionately known are back of an evening hunting under the street lights and sending out their thrumming oom-oom. Each year I hope they will find the trees in our yard to nest in but so far no such luck! But I look forward to thei summertime visits and hopefully they will bring a young one or two around again for a visit.
Yes I am still here…I haven’t actually fallen off the face of the planet…well not yet at least!!
I have been busy with some family/life matters for the past few weeks which has put the artwork on the back burner…again…
I have struggled with issues around neck/shoulder RSI type things for a while now and this has been flaring up in recent weeks. It doesn’t help that my work involves lots of looking down so my posture needs severe attention as well!
I have completed one major project recently – well almost – and will post about that when it is finalised. I am also hoping to finish another major linocut project over the next few weeks if I can get my neck etc to co-operate!
In the meantime I have started back on some botanical illustration work as a break from carving and printing and will post about that asap!
It doesn’t help now that I currently have all my children at home, they have managed to use ALL the broadband allowance for the past month up and we are currently on dial up speed – not impressed. However, I am still stubbornly refusing to purchase extra in the valiant hope that they will all learn…maybe…to curb their usage. So uploading images is pretty slow but just a couple more days!
Just a quick update on the girls doing ‘The Big Ride’ for The Big Issue. Anne and Jo completed a fundraising ride on May 23rd – you can find their blog about this event here. Here is a photo of the participants wearing their new jersey’s with my Australian Floral Emblems design on them! Very impressive!
On 31st May, Anne – who is also a singer – held a fundraising gig – and here she is in the new jersey! My jerseys should arrive in the post this coming week – can’t wait to see them. Also great to see the amount raised by Jo and Anne to buy new equipment for The Big Issue office in Melbourne has almost reached their goal of $10,000 – great work!
It is wet windy and cold here at the moment with a ‘weather event’ looming – according to the weather forecasters. Nice weather for being inside drinking coffee, making winter comfort food and well procrastinating which seems to loom large for me in recent times.
I have however managed to complete one set of colour drafts of the set of 12 tawny expressions linocuts. I wasn’t sure how much to hand colour at this point so have gone in this set for the full colour with glowing yellow eyes look.
Below are the template images with just yellow eyes…
Tawny Expressions Linocut Templates
I was planning to have them framed using black core black mountboard with a black frame so the second image here is to give some idea of that.
I will probably sit on these images for a while (yes more procrastinating!) so I am going back to carving some more work and also further working on the Barn Owl image. I did the original drawing of this barn owl about 5 years ago and it has waffled around for all that time. I have come up with a whole new way of looking at it and may even drop the orginal idea in favour of developing the new images. I will post the process at some stage as it can be valuable for an artist to look at their own processes in a more ordered fashion required for blogging and may provide some small insights for others. Well hopefully anway!
Having finally carved, printed and now coloured this linocut (after working on the original drawing over a year ago and the pre-sketch ideas are over 2 years old!) I finally have finished!
I had hand painted the emu first as you can see but it felt a bit empty so added a graded wash of ‘Australian Red Gold’ which I am quite pleased with. I must say this one of my favourite watercolour pigments as it just seems to have a glow about it. I think the background colour can make a huge difference to any work and often it may take several tries to create the effect you want. So now it is a matter of completing the edition of this design.
Oh and still deciding on a final name for this work? Any ideas?
As I indicated in yesterdays post I have finally printed some of the numerous unfinished designs that have been sitting around on the ‘to do list’ for in some cases years!
So here are the black and white versions- can’t wait for the ink to dry and starting playing with some colour ideas on these 2 works – I already have the framing ideas.
Firstly is the set of 12 tawny expressions. These started as drawing studies of Tawny Frogmouths which I couldn’t resist taking into linocut designs.
The second is a madcap emu that was originally what I considered a less than successful drawing. In the end I went for the slightly unhinged quality of the drawing – especially as emus seem to have this quality about them. As for the design I decided to extend the lines created by the feathering into the background to add to this whole mad type impression.
Any suggestions for the title of this work? “C’mon, make my day” for some reason springs to mind!!
Here a few quick tips on getting your linocut block prepared ready for printing.
* Before you start carving or printing a linocut block you can gently remove the waterproof coating. Linocut blocks are coated in a waterproof coating – if you place a drop of water on the surface it will bead and not soak in. I remove this coating with a superfine grade ‘wet’ sandpaper – using a small amount of water I gently rub the surface with the sandpaper. You will see the coating coming off easily – I then towel dry the block. If you then place a drop of water on the surface it will soak in.
* I trim the edges of the block to make a clean line for the print using a steel ruler and a sharp bladed knife. Traditional linocut blocks have a hessian backing.
* When you trim a linocut block this hessian backing needs to be further trimmed back to ensure none of the hessian stringing is left – this string can easily pick up ink when you are printing and create unsightly marks onto the surface of the print.
* I use scissors to trim – first from the front and then I turn the block over and check of there are any pieces of string that may slowly come undone whilst printing and I trim these back as well. I regularly check the block whilst printing to ensure no stray fine hairs are still there and picking up ink. It is easy to miss one and it is not until it marks the print that you realise it is there.
Within the black and white section of the above image on the left you can see a fine white line – this is one of the small and often extremely fine hairs that can easily ruin a great print – just ask me I know!! The image on the right shows the fine marks that can occur from these hairs picking up the ink. I have discarded many prints (which is quite costly) because of this. I try to keep a particular standard to the prints I include within an edition and work at improving my skills on an ongoing basis. I am finding that as my actual printing technique and knowledge of printmaking improves so the standards I want within each print of an edition, also increases. I am always seeking to learn new and improved techniques and tips through a variety of sources. I am very aware that over time my printmaking skills have improved and as a result so have the prints! I hope this information helps other linocut printmakers in identifying this and other common printing mistakes.
As you can all guess I finally got to print my Tawny Expressions blocks tonight – after spending time in Sydney, being unwell and the awful wet weather (that I tend to try to not print in – now that’s another issue of damp, limp paper in wet and humid weather) I have managed to do some printing this afternoon – fine sunny and actually quite warm for this time of year. Speaking of weather tonights printing listening music – Crowded House!
One of my designs – Paperbark – was recently used on the cover for a new CD by musicians Christine Draeger, Lamorna Nightingale and Jocelyn Edey-Fazzone. It is called Eat Chocolate and Cry – Australian Flute Music 199-2009 featuring Australian contemporary composers. As part of the HSC Music course students must study this content and so this CD is designed a a resource as well as for highlighting contemporary composers and musicians.
