26.2.14

making a new lino print...



Another new lino print...

This one has the most leaves I have ever cut in lino.
I haven't counted them yet, but that is the sort of thing I like to do - if there are statistics accompanying a piece of artwork does that add to it's depth and complexity??




This picture had a seven year old art director, with very exacting ideas and standards and perhaps slightly high expectations of what can be achieved in lino, but we got there!

All woodland creatures in place and a great selection of plants and mushrooms too...I wasn't allowed to include a slug, but a snail was alright.

I didn't cut this lino block in one go, it took a few days, one leaf at a time, and then suddenly they were all done and the printing fun could begin.



There is a very satisfying moment, when the ink is first rolled onto a brand new lino cut, ready for the first proof print because suddenly the image is really there, as it is going to be (in reverse of course!) and then there is no going back or fiddling about because at least one print is going to look exactly like this.

Thank goodness I hadn't hacked through a tree trunk or chopped the hedgehogs nose off, because it would have been very painful to have to recut this one...all those leaves, aaah...


You can look at this very same print HERE if you like too...

5 comments:

Karen said...

This is so very, very nice, beautiful, amazingly detailed, fairytale-like and even (I don't really like to use this word but now I seem to have to) cute... Love it, and it seems you really had to cut your way through wood and bushes. And yes, that first impression... even though the cutting that I do is just on a small scale (stamps), I also like the thrill of the first impression and hope not to have cut away too much...

Melanie Wickham said...

Thanks for your lovely comment Karen - so glad you enjoyed my picture so much!!

June said...

A lovely print, and all the details make it special. I love the baby birds stretching their necks up with wide beaks.... and yes, of course, the snail is special too.

Melanie Wickham said...

So glad you like it June! In my mind it is a noisy print too, all those baby birds shouting for food!

Greenorchid said...

Fabulous! I love your attention to detail... really capturing the layers of nature... Cass x