I have a ton of Daniel Smith relief ink coming in the mail. I’m pretty excited because I had been using litho ink which requires a good bit of modification to print relief. For this piece I plan to have one more block, a light color for a little modeling. I am interested in using color in a more painterly fashion than just laying out flat shapes. To be painterly, it would make more sense to have several more blocks, building and mixing color using various marks. For this one, though, I want to get it knocked out and on to the next. I intend to make this the first in a series of about 10-12 and am eager to build some momentum. And right now I need to get a handle on printing by hand. Then maybe I will increase the complexity. I have 2 different kinds of barens coming to try printing with.
Here I have tried to avoid just cutting out outlines and shapes and clearing the rest. Also different in this block, I’m using 3/4″ birch plywood instead of the crappy 1/4″ birch I had been using. Plus I stained the block before drawing so cuts would be apparent. I will be sure to stain it a color that doesn’t obscure the drawing material next time. Also, I sealed the block and fixed the drawing with Bullseye spray shellac.