13 August 2006

Trial and Error

 I know that I should never print when I'm tired, but I did it anyway. I drove to New Hampshire and back this weekend for a family reunion and I'm exhausted, but I wanted to finish printing this piece tonight because I have a lot of work in front of me in the coming week and I won't be able to work on woodblock again for many days. My mistake. In the spirit of showing all of it, good and bad, here's what I ended up doing tonight: testing different combinations of color for the little "river of particles." Right now I don't like any of them, and as you can see in the upper right print, I even tried a whole different block. I don't like the way the rivers cover up the white circles -- I had wanted them to overprint and still show the white. So now I need to put it all away, let it rest, and start fresh at the end of the week (or even next week) after I finish my illustration projects.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Annie,

It's good that you are looking hard for a print you like, but you would probably find this process easier if you proofed single sheets before you try to print off the whole edition. Don't worry I'm in exactly the same boat. Anyway...

My take on the composition is that the tracks work really well with the circles, but the particle streams, or snakeskins, are too heavy. However if they were printed in a light grey under the red tones that could look good. I would carve the circles into them also.

Annie B said...

Hi Tom,

I did proof a couple first and thought I had worked it out, but then I didn't like it and... well, you know how that goes. By the end of the night I decided to scrap the "edition" and turn it into a test batch.

I think you're right about printing the particle streams UNDER the red tones. That's something I'll try next time I get back to it. Good to let it rest when reaching an impasse like this, I think.

I like your
Mothra print.

Cin said...

I was surprised by these new elements! It took a minute to adjust to but I like the addition, bottom row middle print my favorite of these especially if you're able to bring the white circles back, fantastic to see the progess and such a difficult process!