I had a productive weekend. I didn't accomplish every single goal I had hoped to achieve, but I'm feeling pretty good about everything I did complete. By the time I washed my brayer and hung up my baren on Sunday evening, I left myself in a pretty good place to pick back up when I'm ready to start inking up blocks again.
Additionally, this past weekend was my first time using my new traditional bamboo wrapped baren. I'm still experimenting with it, but I think it's going to really improve my hand-printing, which I'm doing more and more of here lately. I didn't even use the lever press at all this weekend. Needless to say, my technique is evolving and the baren is definitely a great tool to have in my utility belt.
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| It also makes a handy shield for Legolas. |
On Saturday I reviewed what I hoped to accomplish this weekend, but I quickly discovered that I still needed to print quite a few copies of Athena! I definitely wanted to finish that run before I started anything else, but like I had previously stated, it's time to lay Think Digital/Act Analog to rest. So I started by pulling a proof of that, and while it was drying, I started going through my final Athena run. You may have seen my errors from that experimenting with the new baren on that run in my previous update. These errors make me laugh, because they are really bad, but they're actually really instructive to me. By the end of the day, my arm was exhausted, but I was much better with the tool.
By then, my proof of Think Digital/Act Analog was dry and ready for me to review. As much as I would like to call it done and print it up, there were a few things that I just needed to fix. But now, now I am done... With the block anyway. I did pull a final proof after making those edits, and the block is ready to go, but I don't have any paper large enough to accommodate the block. My largest sheets just barely cover the block and while if it fits, I prints, it just doesn't look very presentable. So, Think Digital/Act Analog is 100% ready to print, I just need to buy some larger paper to make that happen.
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| Because the print may look good, but these margins are rubbish! |
That was a pretty good place to stop for Saturday evening. I had gone to community yoga that morning, then volunteered for Clarissa's teacher training class to run me through a full series (I am a dutiful fiance), and I followed that up with about six hours of carving, tearing, and hand printing. So I was ready to take it easy, eat a pizza with my lady, then start up again Sunday morning.
Sunday morning arrived, and I drug my booty out of bed. Then I returned to bed with a bowl of Lucky Charms and an episode of Leverage. After both were finished, I put on pants like a normal human being, sharpened up my gouges, and started cutting Tables Turned like it owed me money.
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| I am the Wolverine of linocut. |
Trimming the lettering took a little more patience than I had expected, but despite a few oddities here and there, I think I managed to get it pretty clean. I didn't get a full run completed- I'm doing a fairly sizable run of this block, by hand, so it may take me awhile. Still I'm off to a nice start, and things are moving right along!
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| Tables Turned |
This upcoming weekend will be the first weekend in a month that I haven't had the apartment all to myself during the day, so I have no idea how productive I'm going to be; maybe a little, maybe a lot... Either way, I'll let you know as I move along! If you're interested in knowing when new posts are coming out, my archival day job, and/or the experimental art project that is my life I encourage you to follow me on Twitter: @CaptGam. Likewise, if you want to see some of the world through my eyes (sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's boring), you can follow me on Instagram at http://instagram.com/wdtellett. Either way, don't be shy, hit me up in the comments, tweet at me, send me a telegram or whatever.
Until next time, I bid you adieu as the bard once wrote; "See you later, alligator."
Based on a work at https://themisadventuresofwade.blogspot.com.
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