Ultimately I want this background to be a dull bluish-gray, so what you see in the photo above is a goma-zuri (speckled) sumi ink gray plus a wash of pale yellow to dull things down.
Next I added a layer of blue:
Things got a little tricky for me at this stage, because I loved the wood grain that came through. I had no idea that this would happen. I knew that I would lose the grain by overprinting with a different block, and I could have re-carved the "wormy" pattern into the flat block so that I could overprint the same grain, but I'll need this flat block again later, so I decided to continue with my plan.
Next I added gray blue on top of the plain layers using the "wormy" block. The photo below shows a double hit of the blue:
There's still more to be done with the background, but I need to carve a couple of new blocks in order to proceed, so for now I'll let the prints dry out and moisten them again when I have the new blocks ready.
3 comments:
It's so interesting to learn how you build your layers.
I think it's shaping up really well, and you're definitely achieving that 'biological' look you were aiming for.
I like that Annie - it's like faded indigo fabric (loved the link you put on Twitter BTW)
Best wishes
Celia
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