Linocut Completion! (part IV)

Not a big post, but an important one... the dog linocut is done! Done! Finally! The last color was printed yesterday and thanks to about 30% cobalt drier it was torn down and editioned today. I ended up with an edition of 15, with 2 proofs on good paper, and 4 proofs on newsprint, which I mostly used for color and consistency testing to make sure the color not only looked good with the others, but sat atop the mountain of inks beneath it. Overall I'm extremely happy with the result, and especially with how it looks next to the phone linocut. They're a happy little pair. The crazy thing is, after tearing down my proofs of each color I went back and counted how many this one had and found the craziest thing... 36. Again. The phone had 36 as well. This wasn't planned in the least, and I was under the impression it was going to only be around 25 or so. Oops. Oh well, maybe the next one I'll shoot for 25 or fewer.

Without further ado...

If there's any interest in it as well... I was thinking of perhaps doing a post on tips and tricks I've learned while printing these guys. Namely, ink problems that arise, paper consistency, things of this nature, but I was also wondering if anyone is interested in the real basics of linocut printing? What is a linocut, how to print multiple colors, ways to register the paper, etc. So let me know if you'd like to see something of this nature and I'll share what little bits of knowledge I've learned. :) 

Linocut Update (part III)

Hello everyone!
Sorry for such a long stretch of silence, but it's the holiday season- I'm sure you understand. :) I know in my last post I mentioned this post would be about my sculptural piece but... it's not. Instead, I realized I was out of paper (Fabriano Rosapina- yum) to print my little wolves for the sculpture piece so I had to order some and that was on back order, so I decided to keep chugging away at my linocut. And I must say, it's extremely exciting to have the finish line so close now! With the new semester just starting it'll be nice to finish this project finally and move on to new and exciting things (which may or may not include another linocut). Over the Christmas break I took a week to drive home and spend some time with my family, eat far too many cookies, and sit around for far too many hours, but that was finished soon enough and my return to Fargo brought with it a new drive to create some art. I devoted at least a few hours a day to printing a color or two (or four) with each pass and soon realized I only had a few more before it was complete. So yesterday I printed a light blue, and today just finished the darkest of the blues. All it still needs is a few colors in the pull-string and this little puppy is ready to be editioned, signed and framed. Which is great because he'll be joining his little telephone friend in a small exhibit on campus. Check back soon for the finished, finished product, some exciting news, and (eventually, I promise!) a post about the sculpture. Happy New Year!