Jasper #I, Finished

jasper streetscape

I have been getting over my cold and was able to spend time finishing up the latest streetscape.  I deepened all of the colors and added in the shading and am pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  I was putting in some of the shadows when John came by and looked.  He said, “You are putting in purple for the shadows?”  And I said, “Yes, I am.  But I won’t leave it that way.”  It took me a long time to become comfortable with not just making shadows with grays and dark browns, but it is really much better.  Sometimes experimentation does work and you learn something new.

I’m just going to be moving down the street for the next drawing.  I have about three more good views of the square to use and they are all uniquely colored.  It’s nice to see that this town has been able to keep their main square vibrantly alive.

A start on the watercolors

Preliminary watercolors

This is only about half finished, but I thought I’d post a progress picture.  The weather here this week  hasn’t been good with close to 12″ of snow over 3 snowfalls and some serious windchills, so I probably should have gotten more done, but I am fighting a bad cold too and I haven’t felt much like working.

As you can see, the colors are quite a vibrant mix of reds, greens, and yellows.  I have just the basics down so far, with not much in the way of depth yet, but over the next few days, I’ll try to get it finished.  I really like the bold color combinations of the bricks and trim.  There is so much more character here than compared with modern architectural taste.  I think it’s why I love small town buildings so much.

Rural Indiana streetscape

Jasper streetscape

This turned out to be a rather complicated drawing to ink. There is a wide variety of colored trim and brickwork that I had to account for in the inking even before I colored it.  Because of the detail involved, I am tending towards using the watercolors. It is much easier to manipulate the brushes in small areas than the pastels.  I am going to do it in a realistic style rather than the splashed on abstract.  It may take a while to work this through, but it should be fun. I will probably do more scenes from the town square.  Many of the stores have vibrant coloring which makes it an interesting project.

Jasper

Jasper streetscape

I sorted through the photos I had printed up recently and decided on this view for my next project.  When I went and picked up my artwork from the show last September, we stopped for lunch in the Jasper town square.  It was a beautiful area, with the buildings all well cared for and brightly painted. This particular corner’s buildings sport intricately patterned  brick and brightly colored trim.  The red, green, and yellow hues make the square a lively and lovely place to be.  I haven’t decided whether to color with the pastels or the watercolors yet.  I think I’ll wait until I’ve finished the inking and decide then.  Maybe it will be a combination  as I did for the last Christmas commission where there were spaces that were too small to effectively use the pastels.

Redoing the studio linocut

Redone linocut

I wasn’t really happy with the color print of the backyard studio, so I decided to redo it. Part of the problem I have been having with the prints I color is that the heavier paper is more textured and it is difficult to get an even print.  I went to the local box craft store to see if I could find an acid free heavier paper without so much texture. They carried a pad of Strathmore acid free mixed media paper with a smoother finish that had possibilities.  I bought it and made a couple of prints.  Definitely it was easier.  This one had better ink pickup on the whole than the more textured paper.  It isn’t quite as absorbent as fast, but if I take it slower and allow the watercolors a chance to sink in and dry, it does work.  I just think I need to practice with it some.  Because the black is more consistent, the watercolors have a chance to pop the image more.  I think I’ll keep trying it for the next few linocuts.

I had some new prints made from from my digital files this week, too.  After the last few years of work, I have pretty much run the gamut of the usable photos from my old analog camera, so I went ahead and made a few from my digital files.  It is so nice now that I can just look at my files and only print up the ones that turn out.  I used to have to take rolls and rolls of film to make sure I got some good shots.  It is certainly a lot cheaper too.  I have some shots from a visit to an outdoor dinosaur museum in Kentucky off of I-65 that have the makings of a few little boy linocuts and also downtown shots from Jasper Indiana where I had the paintings in the art show last September.  Maybe inspiration is striking again.  Anyway, those projects will be up in next weeks.

On a totally different note, please indulge a little motherly pride.  Our son ran in the 2015 USA Track and Field 100 mile National Championships in Texas on January 31.  A long time runner, he placed 12th in the men’s championship field and 23rd overall out of a field of 367.  Here is a link to our daughter-in-law’s blog with a picture.  I also have her blog in my blogroll if you can’t use the link for some reason under Beth’s Healthy Lifestyle Blog.  It is the previous post to the one up. https://treetoptrainingcultivation.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/endurance/

Printed linocuts

Black and white print

I worked on the linocuts yesterday.  I like the way the black and white print turned out.  There are not really any decisions for this print, just ink and go.  Still, the reverse print always is a bit of a surprise after looking at the block.

Colored studio print

I had to think somewhat for the watercolored version.  How much and how dark to make the colors is always the main decision.  I varied the green some to add depth and added some maroon/pink flowers.  The real question I had was if I should color in the studio building at all.  I left it yesterday with all of the vegetation done, but the building the stark paper white.  It appealed to me that way somewhat, but I knew I’d want to look at it again later with fresh eyes.  Today it seemed a bit much so I lightly added color for a stuccoed effect.

An architectural linocut

Studio linocut

I was watching the British Antiques Roadshow program today and it gave me an idea for my next project.  Someone had brought in a lovely architectural woodcut to be appraised and I really liked it.  While I am sure mine is not as good as the one I saw, I am relatively pleased with it.  You may recognize the subject matter.  It is the same studio that was accepted into the art show last summer.

It is hard to really delineate the various plantings with the limited tools I have, but I tried to to vary the cuts to indicate different foliages.  I will let it sit until tomorrow to see what I might want to change.  This view of the cut gives a good idea of what a black and white print would look like.  I think it would also look pretty good in a colored version.