Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Rule Breaking

Intemperate, jigsaw reduction woodblock print, still in progress

It is white-line Wednesday and this is a jigsaw. But one of the reasons I wanted to make jigsaws after printing white-line woodcuts for a bit was because I knew there would be a white-line element to the jigsaws. 

When the block is cut into pieces, some material is lost to sawdust. That means that sometimes, the pieces don't snug right up together perfectly all the time. The key is to make that part of the design. For example, in the photo above, you can see that the brown rock shape and the green ink directly to the right of it have a varied white line in the middle of them. 

In this print, I wanted to really push the white of the paper. I carved a lot of wood the very first layer.

As the print progressed, it seemed like there was too much white. I was hoping I would get over that feeling, but I never did.

After months of thinking about it (ok, fretting, really), I have decided to add more blocks and print more shapes. That makes this print not a strict reduction, but who really cares. 

There isn't a "Reduction Division" of the Printmaking Police. There are a lot of busy-body types who love to geek out over printmaking terms who get a bit heavy-handed at times. There are juried events that might take definitions very seriously and if they say "Reductions Only", this print would be excluded. But none of these folks wear badges and none of them are the Boss of Me. 

Which is why I am adding blocks to my reduction. And liking it. You saw a close-up shot of the foreground greens the other day because I really like how that is turning out.

Other areas that changed in this layer are in the rocks - I planned all along to add a dark brown to the top area of that shape and a middle grey to the bottom of it.

The bummer is that I still think there is too much white..... So I am adding more blocks. 

Don't tell me I can't. It is my print and I'll add blocks if I want to.

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