Snow in the air?

Now autumn is pretty much done and dusted I think it is time to crack out the x word. Christmas is coming and I am working on a new card. Last year was a squirrel, previous year was a wee deer, this year I am going arctic with  a polar bear or two. I had a vision of the bears in the night on the ice but thought it was too dark and then cut round the bears to make an outline. Now I am worried I have made a mistake and should go back to the dark image.

Badger, badger, badger, hare

I blame autumn watch! At this time of year I find myself sketching we animals and woodlands. Aha, I will do a badger I said to myself, how cute, how lovely. How wrong, difficult wee beasties to draw, esp. if you are aiming for an adorable 'Don't cull me' look. I tried for about a week and seemed to end up with a series of fairly horrible bears with face paint.

Thankfully perseverance paid off and I ended up with an image that works. I have decided to stick with the colours and collage effect used for the stag. So I am creating a series of animals using the gold/silver tissue paper with the animal outlined in black and highlighted in white. This combo seems to capture the twilighty autumnness of the atmosphere I wanted for my creatures.

The hare image came relatively quickly, I wanted a sketchy illustration of a hare about to bound off into the distance.

Next up a hedgehog but he is proving nearly as tricky as the badger...

Mulling it over

So here is my print of Fidden Bay, with extra sheep!

I am very pleased with it. The break seems to have done me good. I was delighted to be back up at the printmakers with the smell of the ink and the roar of the presses! (well not so much roar as creaks and groans). Once I started the print I was kicking myself for staying away so long. As I was a bit nervous about losing my printing mojo I really took my time over the layers and cutting, hopefully it shows.

 First cut I used a brown on the bottom half to pick out the sheep and a pale blue on the sky. I cut out the right hand part of the sea to try and catch the dazzling sparkle you get on the scottish sea.

Next I layered some light green on the foreground and another pale blue on the sky. Previously i have really struggled with sky. Relief printing can be unforgiving when attempting subtlety however I was pleased with this effect, it looks harsher in the above picture than it is.

At this point I was really pleased with my wee sheep emerging in the foreground.

Next came the dark blue of the sea, I decided to use the blue on the foreground to give the next layer depth and to highlight the grass. If you look closely you will also see I had a bit of the mid-print crisis and added some ill-advised teasels and other flora to the foreground. Fortunately I came to my senses and changed it.

Choosing a green when doing a Scottish landscape is tricky, too green and it can look lurid but Mull really is that green. I think the dark blue underneath saved the green from its greenness. I used a grey to pick out the rocks.

To be honest at this point I considered just leaving it

but the rocks on the near beach were blending unhappily with the more distant bay.

The dark brown gives a sense of distance and recession and of course the wee sheep benefited too!

Out of the Blue Christmas Art Fair

One rule I normally set myself before setting up a stall is 'DO NOT BUY ANYTHING YOU ARE HERE TO SELL'. But these little ceramic goats were dangled opposite me all day and by the end I just had to have some. The stall holder was Sigrid Pederson and I hope they are there next week cos I might have to go and get some more.

It was cold in the Drill Hall on saturday but I had a lovely day. Mostly thanks to the fine company of
Alison whose prints you can see in the foreground.

My Christmas cards were well received and are available on

Folksy you can also buy them locally in Cove

Red Fox

And so here is the last of my woodland creatures!

The Swift Golden Hare Jumped over the Lazy Fern.... or something

'Do you do hares?' asked someone at a craft fair last year. Sadly the answer was no but now it is yes! I really enjoyed the squirrel print process so I have decided to try and do a few 2 block prints with Chine-collé for texture. As with the squirrel I have played around with a few different colours comments and opinions welcome.

Next up a fox....

Final Proof of the 'Red Squirrel' print

I am really pleased with how this has turned out. I love the byzantine quality of the gold tissue paper.

The Fridge of Indecision

Welcome to the fridge of indecision. I have tried various permutations trying to get this image right. I have printed completely on red tissue paper, then gold tissue paper. I reversed the light and dark to make the squirrel less insipid, I then made both layers dark, then piled on chine-colle in gold and silver. Tried thick paper and thin paper. Basically I have had a bit of a lark today! The Fridge of indecision awaits my husband and daughters opinions and anyone else who has tuppence to add.

Monologue

So many thanks to Laura who v. patiently showed me how to monoprint over my wood cut. The result is good. I am going to cut out a new block to recreate the effect above. I like the immediacy using the monoprint technique and it has definitely shown me how to rescue the sky in this print.

So a few more colours added and I decided to stop. The sky contrast has come out stronger than I wanted and I need to add more detail to the sand but am taking some time to consider how. I may attempt some monoprint on top next week. Any ideas?

Blue sky thinking

I have a bit of a love hate thing going on with skies. I love sketching sky but printing not so much. Hair and sky are my nemesis, I can't draw hair and I can't print skies to my satisfaction. So I have been practising various techniques before embarking on my next print which is very much about the sky.

New Print Brewing!

Just before Easter we has a flying visit to Arisaig in the North West of Scotland, a sort of scouting trip for our big tour of Scotland in July. We arrived on the most beautiful sunny evening and Eigg looked amazing.



My wee sketch is going to be the basis for a new print.

I have been wanting to do a more 'designy' type print for ages so much sketching and photoshoping later i came out with the above, which is going to be the basis for a small woodcut. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Cards

A big thank you to Roseanne at Urban Igloo who prompted me to get some cards printed. All are availabe at Urban Igloo.

Portobello take 2

Here is my latest Portobello inspired print.

groynes finished

Here is the finished groynes image. The jury is still out as to whether the 'proper oil based done in the studio' version is actually any better or in fact not as good as my home grown proofs!

It does look more finished but I quite liked the painterly quality of the waterbased inks. Maybe I should just have done some watercolours and saved my hands?

I am reconsidering my colour obsession. Here is a simple wood cut I did at the start of the summer. Maybe it is time to go monochromatic for a while.