Back to collagraphs.....

So my printmaking class is doing collagraphs.  I really could have spent the whole 12 weeks on relief prints.  I still have lots of ideas for relief prints, but have no time to work on them.  But this now is the end of three weeks of collagraphs, and I'm finally getting into collagraph mode, but next week is the start of etching.  Alas.

Although I really like taking the classes, and learning new things and meeting new people, I think I don't have the temperament for all this switching of media.  I still really really want to be working on my linocuts.....

Color Reduction Prints

So finally, here is my first project for my BEGINNING print-making class.  Quite the beginner project, eh?  

I guess I learned a lot from doing them, and I had to do two instead of just one.  And I have some ideas for some more, but no....we've now moved on to collagraph.  I disapprove of this a little of this here, a little of that there kind of class.  It really takes me awhile to get into something, and to really see what I might be able to do with it, and then to do it.

So we'll see.....

Lino faces #34 - 37

Although the results are inconsistent, I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with the grays.  It's been a challenge, and really, I think I have to just keep doing these.  All of these are 4X6".  I like this top one, but as you can see from the notation, it's the 3rd state.

This one I don't like so well, and I haven't yet decided whether it needs more cutting, or to just be thrown away.

I like this one too, though it needs a little cleaning up.  I took the reference photos myself for 34, 36, and 37, and I'm pleased with that.

Another one that needs more work.  I didn't mark it on the proof, but this is also a second state, and I know exactly what I'm going to cut away next.

More linocut faces

And I thought I was done with these faces--HA!  It seems not.   What I seem to be working on now is the grays--or rather the lines that make up the grays.  I tried a little of that before, but I see that the direction of the lines makes all the difference in the world, and I obviously need a whole lot more practice. 

These top two (#30 and #31, if one were counting) are from reference photos I took myself--pretty much for the sole purpose of using them as reference photos.  I wonder if the people in the pictures would be interested in a print of themselves--not that they look all that much like the person anyway.  I know I would like one. 

And, oh, the simplicity of straight black and straight white.  What a joy that is!  It's so much faster to cut, and so much simpler to deal with and think about, and I do like the results.

But no--I think I need to work on this some more......