Myrtle Beach Print Beginings

I love Myrtle Beach. I usually visit a couple times a year. It is sort of garish and crass in an endearing way. I’m especially fascinated by the mix of old and new structures and cultural icons that you find there. A lot of the mini-amusement parks seem to be closing as the economic situation evolves. Condos seem to be taking the place of entertainment oriented businesses. But you can still find a couple big arcades and themed miniature gold courses modeled in concrete to resemble volcanos or tropical islands. My favorite thing about Myrtle Beach is the people watching. I have amassed a large collection of photos from various trips to Myrtle Beach over the years and the best ones are photos of unsuspecting vacationers walking or sitting on the beach.

I’ve started a piece I’ve been thinking about for a while. It will probably be a 2 color woodcut. I’m still working on the Saddam piece but that is going to take a while so I’d like to have some other stuff going concurrently.

I’m constantly trying to improve my ability to think in terms of positive and negative with 1-3 colors. In other words visualize things as a woodcut. While exploring some color ideas for this print, I found a really effective way to help develop this skill. I draw a thumbnail in pencil, then use marker to show where the ink will be as if this were a print. Then I erase the pencil and see if the forms still read well. Sounds elementary, but I think this little technique is already helping me move away from a reliance on outline.

One other small discovery: For my Saddam print, I was trying to transfer the image to the blocks with homemade carbon paper. I made it by covering a sheet of paper with a 6b graphite stick. It didn’t work well at all – too faint to read. Later, I made a new carbon paper sheet but with compressed charcoal. Worked like a charm! Again, elementary, but not obvious to me. I had to waste some valuable time to figure that one out.