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revivingKensArt (2 Viewers)

Thanks Nick, Phil. As far as the 1000 replies it's probably good that the stats don't include the number of times I reply to myself. I'm sure that would bring it down quite a bit.

I'm including the final edition of this print. It went through 10 more versions from the one I printed, mainly because Laughing Gulls are gray on their wings and back so I wanted to try to show that. I liked the version with all of the black but just couldn't live with keeping it.

In any case this ended up a bit lighter than I originally intended. But that's what happens when you cut away anything that the ink could stick to!

Flocks of American Robins have been chowing down our crabapples over the last few days so it's time to take a break from printing and see about doing a watercolor for the Christmas challenge.
 

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Wow, you are getting good at this very very fast and with quite complicated pieces! I really like the gulls. Each bird stands out well from the background and your composition is very nice. Good work, Ken!
 
Thanks Sid. I find that I'm very comfortable with this type of printmaking, even though it's new to me. I may change my mind about this over time but for now linocuts seem to be a good way to combine 'art' and 'illustration'. Plenty of artists here have no trouble with that but for me many media seem to make me either concentrate too much on getting the bird accurate and then getting a dull unadventurous painting or getting an adventurous painting that doesn't do justice to the bird. Linocuts seem to allow me to do both. I feel comfortable with them, even with all the work involved in getting to the final print.
 
Thanks all. Just stumbled upon some blogs yesterday that focus on printmaking, especially British printmaking. I think I'll be getting distracted there for awhile. Quite a lot of striking work.
 
Hey Ken....Greetings....I like these lino cuts as well...i like the reduction and the fluidity of the lines...What are you looking into?.. I can see you getting into multicolor woodcuts pretty soon.. I have a strong memory of some of Your Ink Drawings. Those insects really impressed me..I can imagine that etching would also be a superb medium for you,with Your understanding of line and cross-hatch..
 
mayoayo said:
Hey Ken....Greetings....I like these lino cuts as well...i like the reduction and the fluidity of the lines...What are you looking into?.. I can see you getting into multicolor woodcuts pretty soon.. I have a strong memory of some of Your Ink Drawings. Those insects really impressed me..I can imagine that etching would also be a superb medium for you,with Your understanding of line and cross-hatch..
Click to expand...

Glad that you like them Mayoayo. I think I'll probably stick to lino and reduction/multi-color lino for awhile but then maybe eventually try woodcut. The problem with woodcut from my recollection of the one or two times I tried it is that just as you're about to make an important cut into the wood it splinters and ruins everything. Much less unforgiving than linoleum. But I do love wood and have various hardwood scraps lying around. So I may eventually give it a try.

The funny thing about those detailed insect drawings is that I really didn't enjoy doing them all that much. Though part of that was probably due to the fact that I always had one eye glued to a dissecting microscope as I did so. Very bad for my eyes I think. So I don't think I'll be heading in the direction of a lot of cross-hatching and hatching. But you never really know.;) At least I learned something about that type of work while doing them.

But more likely I'll continue as with the gulls and the Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Most of the sites I've been looking at are of older work, not contemporary. They include Modern Printmakers/, Art and the Aesthete/, and The Linosaurus among others. Each time I clicked on a link I found some printmakers I was unfamiliar with. Of course that's not saying much given my ignorance about printmaking........ I'd particularly recommend looking for the Alan Seaby post at Modern Printmakers.
 
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Really nice works ,thanks for the links...Well I liked the style of the Insects,but If You didnt enjoy doing them that much,I will be happy to see Any other works !(.Looking back into you thread,I loved the recent fast sketches and the hawk piece...)..Is nice to see this last prints and follow the evolution
 
mayoayo said:
Really nice works ,thanks for the links...Well I liked the style of the Insects,but If You didnt enjoy doing them that much...
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They're still the most popular pages on my site Mayoayo so you're not alone in liking them. Only the black and white bird drawings rival them in popularity. You'd think people didn't like my sense of color!!

I used to read about artists/musicians/filmmakers moving on from what their fans liked to do something different. I never would have guessed when I did the insect drawings that they'd be so popular. I wasn't really trying to do anything artistic when I started them, but just draw them in enough detail so that I could figure out what in the world they were.;)
 
Ken..Ave!(old roman salute,that still means bird in spanish!)Well....hehe..went back to your site..I enjoyed all the work You have there,since I appreciate lots of qualities in Your work,but again..those Insects !!!the fact that the studies are the work of a naturalist in the field and the practical compositions(resulting of the need to comprise information in the view)really appeal to me...and then..It is all the other works,around a favorite piece,that makes an artist´s work really complete...
 
Version four of what I'm sure will be many more versions of nine American Robins seen at our backyard birdbath during a blizzard four years ago. Since it's based on this older photo I'm not adding it to Deborah's thread, though I have to confess that is what got me thinking about the robins.

I made some vague effort to print this trial run straight rather than cockeyed, but obviously was off a wee bit. The final version, when it finally comes along, will be straight.;)
 

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Thanks Tony. There are still many versions to go on this I think. Yesterday's was number four. This is number 10. The easiest way to work with linocut as far as I can tell is to make many small changes, print them, and then decide how to move on. That's why I'm so clear on how many changes I've made.

It does make for a lot of trips down to the basement to print, then back up to the second floor to cut away.
 

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