Posted by Dave Bull at 10:37 AM, June 12, 2009
Continued from [Forest in Summer - 5] | Starting point of the thread is [Forest in Summer - 1]
So, the second block for the grasses is now done:
At this scale, there isn't much apparent difference from the first one for the greenery, but when you get close, you can see plenty - perhaps this block is about 15% or so trimmed back from the base block. Once we get started printing, we'll have some closeups to inspect them ...
Moving right along ... Although two levels isn't enough to produce all the effects I want on the greenery, from here on the shading blocks will be combined with those for other parts of the image. So let's have another 'base tone' block - this is the one for the tree that will fill most of the surface area of this print:
As for the circles, we've seen these before, in one of the previous prints. They are not part of the design. To keep the tracings as dry as possible - to minimize distortion - I cut these out from areas of solid black ... (And what looks like wide areas of solid black when seen at this scale, actually have plenty of small shapes carved into them ...)
I only had chance to get started in one corner this afternoon, but here's what it will look like - pretty much an exact 'reversal' of the first grass block:
The thread continues in [Forest in Summer - 7] ...
Wow, what an ambitious project!
The existence of both positive and negative blocks covering the same area with such an intense collection of grass lines is boggling my mind. I can see 2 potential problems in the carving and registration which will require your super-human abilities to avoid. In carving the positive and negative blocks, your line thicknesses need to spot-on in all places or you will get some unprinted places. Also, it looks like there will be absolutely no room for registration errors.
If anybody could pull this one off, Dave Bull is the guy!
Marc
you will get some unprinted places
I have a plan for that. There will almost certainly be some - with this level of detail, it's practically guaranteed that I'll miss something somewhere, and the resulting blank white space in the finished print would stick out very visibly.
So what I'm going to do is cut the first two blocks for the grasses (done), cut the first two blocks for the tree, and then take a proof. Leaving out the mushroom and the distant scenery for the moment, those four blocks should give me 100% coverage of the grasses/tree zone. If at that point I see any exposed white, I'll make a note of it, and then when I cut tone block #3 (which will add tone to both tree and grasses), I'll make sure it will cover any such areas ...
But yeah, registration on this one is going to be hairy, for sure!
