With the ranger

I talked a little about the process I decided to use in my post "from suicide to jigsaw" how I was going to add color to my relief prints. The process works great and I'm really happy with the way the final images turn out too but I was still looking for a faster way to make my images. Using the jigsaw method, I could have all the various colors rolled up with ink and pieced back together in about 15-20 minutes. Doesn't seem too long except when you're trying to make an edition of ten, making the printing process 3-4 hours. At 2 a.m. I didn't want this to take this long, I was impatient and wanted to find another approach that might even still speed up the process.

That's when lightning struck.

"I've just had an apostrophe"

"I think you mean 'an epiphany' Smee" 

"Lightning has just struck my brain" 

"Well that must hurt" 

-Hook

(Such a great movie!) 

....back on track... I got this idea that maybe instead of cutting out all these little shapes I could just draw my image on a piece of plexiglass, paint the ink on plexiglass and run that through the press. Awesome! I'm sure this would save me so much more time because if the ink was fluid enough it would just brush on the plexiglass nice and easy and before long I would have another print done. So I went to work. 

With sharpie I drew my image on the plexiglass, I mixed all my ink colors and with different brushes I painted all the various areas I wanted color. Even though I thinned down the ink with a thinner it still wasn't as fluid as I hoped. I still took time to cover all the shapes with color. The other issue I didn't consider with this method was how more detailed I could get my shapes. My shapes are only so detailed when I have to cut them out with a pointy knife, but a sharpie I could get smaller shapes and more of them.

Painting my image this way took about 30-40 minutes per print. Hahaha so much for saving myself time... so I quickly got burnt out with this method and wished I had a print assistant to slave over this print instead of me. Any volunteers to print with me from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. every night? Payment would be in prints and pepsi, I cant really afford much more then that.

Even though it was a much longer process it didn't look to bad. It had a very painterly feel which was a nice effect.

Once all the carving was done I ran a test print to do a final check to make sure everything looked right. Then the more exciting part.... running a color test proof....

Nice. These print are much more dynamic and visually interesting then the black and white key block image. I'm really excited that the color is working out even though the printing process requires so much more time. It will be worth it seeing all 20 of my prints hanging in the Zion gallery space. 

Hikers over the mountain, printer over the moon!

The slump seems to be fading, especially after my exciting night last night. (And early morning.) I was in the studio last night finishing up my key block image. The key block is the final image in a print and has most of the details. So after finishing my key block around 12 I inked it up to see what it would look like on paper.

It looks pretty good just black and white but there is no contrat between the different shapes. So in my excitement I took a colored test proof and printed the black key block on top and....

Bam!! This just reignited my printing fire for this project! The colors, the texture, everything looked great! This called for a victory dance. Don't judge. I could get away with dancing because it was 1 in the morning and no one was around to see, also it was 1 in the morning so I needed something other then caffeine to keep me awake. 

My journey is far from over, so I couldn't rejoice too long. I have been keeping track of my time and so far each print is estimated to take about 15 hours to complete (that is if everything goes smoothly; let's not forget Art Rule #1: everything takes longer then you think.) and I have to be finishing about 2 prints every week to keep on schedule with my goals. So after working 40 hours a week to keep the lights on and mouths fed, I will be working an additional 30 hours a week to finish this project! High five for the art life! :D 

From suicide to jigsaw

After last weeks failed attempt with my first colored print I felt like I needed to rethink some things. Now, don't call your psyciatrist because I used the word suicide, just hand tight and it will all make sense. 

The next few days after printing my second color and not liking how it was going to turn out I went into a little slump. I felt deflated and unmotivated to start over which threw my schedule off a little bit. But after some encouraging strategies from my coach I cleared my head and started making progress in the right direction. 

My first obstacle to rethink was the method I would add color to my print. Originally I was going to do the "suicide method" which is a process of printmaking where you carve a little bit of the image away at a time with each color. It's all done on the same printing block so depending on how many colors you want in your print, you run the block that many times through the press. This is the process I primarily use, so some of my pictures from prior posts might be more visually explanatory; but because of the beautiful colors in Zion National Park, there was just going to be too many colors, meaning too many times through the press, meaning it would take too long to finish all of my prints. 

Problem: a quicker way to add color. Solution: a new printing method, the jigsaw method. 

I have done this method before and it's really cool, yet it's also time consuming. The jigsaw method is just that, a jigsaw. If you're imagining a jigsaw puzzle you're on the right track. Little pieces that are all separate then are put back together. 

Here, visuals. :D 

I took my detailed drawing and created simple shapes I could cut out. Then I traced these simple shapes onto mat board and with a razor blade I cut out all those little shapes. The benefit to doing this is I can ink up all the separate shapes with a different color, piece it all back together and run it one time through the press. And then TaDa! All the color is there. 

Cutting out all those shapes were no fun but you can't beat how simple....well simple-er, it is when it's all cut out. Inking up the smallest pieces was a challenge but it's ok. Oh what we do for art! 

This was my first attempt. You would think that I would have thought about this before but ink drys on paper and mat board is made of paper so while I was inking all the pieces some of the ink was drying on the mat board. The result, too light. 

The second attempt was much better. And look at all that color! One time through the press and the color looks great. Next will be getting the key block image carved so all the details stand out so stay tuned for my next posts. 

Print failure

I forgot to post my progress; sorry guys. 

Well I was working but I wouldn't call it progress. I'm working with a coach to help me achieve my goals and stay on the right track and the other day we were talking about my larger goals. My goal is to have all 30 of my prints carved and printed by January 15, that gives me 3 1/2 months to do all that. My coach helped me narrow down my goals. To hit that goal I would have to work on almost 10 prints a month, which is almost 2-3 prints a week. It's a lofty goal and I think I'm up for the challenge. 

Then came the first night. I got my first two prints drawn out and carved. I was ready for my first color. 

Things were going smoothly but it was taking time. I was in the studio that night for 5 hours working on the first color of these two prints. There was a lot of preparations to get done at first, not every night of printing will take that long (thank goodness). From tearing paper to mixing colors, I was heading in the right direction, now I was ready to print. So with the radio cranked up, away I went. 

The first colors laid down nicely except for one thing. I will almost always draw with sharpie onto the sintra I carve on. Sometimes when I print, a ghost image of the sharpie comes throught but fades away after the first few prints. These ones didn't but that didn't bother me because I knew that there was more colors to come that the sharpie would get covered up. Not really the case. The sharpie lines stayed pretty apparent on the paper interfering with some of my carved details. 

BLAST!! All that hard work for nothing. I thought about just going along with it but I know that I'm still early in the game right now. I can cut my losses early and start over on a print that I'm happy with instead of trying to fix one that might or might not look okay when I finish. 

Anyway, this is why this is my print fail. 12 hours into my printing time and I'm back to square one. 

20/30 Zion drawings- Entry to the narrows

Another popular hike are the beautiful narrows. Yet at that time of year the water was still really cold, and if any of you really know me I don't really like the cold so needless to say I was content standing around, on the warm dry river bank, taking pictures of the more daring people embark on thier cold wet adventure. 

19/30 Zion drawing- morning guests

Artists in residence here at Zion national park get to stay at the historical Ghrotto cabin. It was centered in the park so we weren't too far away from anything, especially the the wildlife. Early in the mornings I would walk to the window to find the group of deer grazing on grass as well as a flock of wild turkeys. The turkeys were definitely less trusting then the deer, when I tried to go outside to take some pictures the turkeys would run away but the deer didn't seem to mind. There were even fox paw prints around indicating a nocturnal visitor had stopped by. 

17/30 Zion drawings- playing at the river

The Virgin River is a beautiful place and it's the reasons we have Zion national park at all. Families come from all over the world to see its creation, and sometimes add a little back. :D I sat around a little while watching kids try to skip rocks across the river. 

18/30 Zion drawings- star gazing

I grew up in the city where at night all you could see were house lights, car lights and street lights. You couldn't look up and see the stars because of all the light pollution. (That's what my astronomy teacher called it) some times you could turn off all the house lights and look up in the sky and see some of the brighter stars but nothing beats going out into the country where there are no city lights for miles and looking up at the sky! That's how it was in the park. The stars were bright and beautiful. You could clearly see the milky way stretch across the sky. And I wasn't the only one to enjoy the speticle, there was a group of night hikers there identifying the constellations. 

16/30 Zion drawings- dinner party

In the afternoon/evenings there was a family of deer that would come down to graze on the grass near the Ghrotto cabin where I was staying. This area is also near the trail head to Angels Landing so many visitors rested and ate lunch in this area. Dinner anyone? 

15/30 Zion drawings- field trip

One day I planned on going to the visitor center at Zion park to look around at the gallery space where I would be showing my work. While I was looking around, I noticed a group of students being guided around by a park ranger. I thought this would make a good addition to my body of work so I quietly snuck around the corner to take some photos so not to interrupt the ranger's teaching moment to already distracted kids. It's fun playing stealth artist :D 

14/30 Zion drawing- the onlookers

While in Zion we saw many different types of animals. It was fun watching other people interact and react to the animals but I know I was excited to interact with them too. One afternoon my wife was taking a nap and I was relaxing after a hike, when she started screaming and called me into the room. She was hearing a noise near the window rattling the window shades. As I investigated, a little lizard popped out from behind the blinds. We cought it and  took it outside and let it go but not before taking a couple of pictures

13/30 Zion drawing- wonder and amaze

I was walking a long behind this couple when they stopped and just gazed up taking in the scale of the mountain formations. It was a nice stollen shot and beautiful landscape. 

12/30 Zion drawings- family sunset

This black and white drawing doesn't do the colors in my reference photo justice. The colored are beautiful and I hope to capture them in my colored print but for now your just going to have to take my word. 

11/30 Zion drawing- edge of discovery

10/30 Zion drawings- old time tour

Visitors to the park can take a horse guided tour like they did in the founding of the park. Walking through rivers and over rock formations, it's a beautiful way to experience the park. Well I would imagine it is. I haven't taken a horse guided tour but it looks wonderful. 

9/30 Zion drawings- Mountain top Victories

At the tops of these mountain, people can be observed celebrating their courage, determination, and will power. With arms stretched victoriously out wards like Olympic athletes after a race, hikers take moments to enjoy the beauty of the landscape. Through pictures they document the emotions of satisfaction and excitement and accomplishment. This was fun for me to feel myself as I hiked through Zion park as well as see other hikers experience this. 

8/30 Zion drawings- brothers lookout

From the top of the canyon peaks, you get a greater sense for just how wonderful this place is. How for thousands of years before, the Virgin river has cut and carved the canyons now standing thousands of feet above the ground. These are incredible views. And off in the distance you see the road, bringing your memory back to where you started and remembering how far you came. 

7/30 Zion drawings- the accent

Angels landing is a beautiful hike and a beautiful rock formation. It jets out from the other mountainous cliffs and has sheer cliff edges on either side. There is just a narrow land bridge that you hike to reach the top. While holding on to chains for support, hiking up this mountain makes you question your determination and sanity. But as you keep hiking, keep putting one foot on front of the other, you get closer and closer to the top and a new fire of excitement burns within. Fron the top the views are breathtaking. Well breathtaking is more of what you experience hiking up Angels Landing but the views are also breathtaking. 

6/30 Zion drawings- hiking

Again there are so many people leaving the luxuries of modern life to reconnect with nature. Taking time out to explore the beautiful aspects of life around them. This is what I wanted to focus on with my art in this project. 

5/30 Zion drawings- portrait of the patriarchs

Just as abundant as hikers in the park are photographers. Professional and hobbiests alike people are taking pictures to capture the beauty of nature and capture the memory of thier experience. 

4/30 Zion drawings- with the ranger

So while I was out hiking the beautiful park, I was gathering reference photos from people I would see along the way. I did this by conspicuously holding my camera in my hand down at my side while people walked by and just snapping away in hopes for a good shot. Also as people walked past I would turn around and take a shot of them walking away from me with the landscape in the background. I would also look for people doing something interesting and hope they didn't notice I was taking pictures in thier general direction. For the most part people had no idea I was photographing them, but every once in a while I felt like I cought someone's eye and they sensed they knew what I was up to. 

Here were some images I gathered of a ranger out talking with visitors about the park. Again I captured these photos while they weren't looking to keep the moment natural. So here is my 4th idea for my print series

3/30 Zion drawings- skirel!

This was one of my favorite moments while I was there in Zion. We were hiking down a pretty easy trail that was paved which ment that a lot of families hike this area. While we hiked I was stopped by this sound "skirel!" (Squirrel) A little girl around the age of 1or 2 was walking with her grandma when she stopped because she saw a squirrel. She pointed excitedly then walked over to it slowly and just watched the squirrel. It was fun to watched this girl connect with nature especially at that time because my wife was pregnant and we were just a few months away from having our little girl. 

2/30 Zion drawing- to the top

Everywhere you look there are hikers in Zion. For native Utah'ns and those from outside the state hiking up the various trails in Zion park is exciting and nerve challenging way to experience nature. There are feelings of thrill and anxiety as you hike up Angels Landing steep rocky trail. 

So here is my new sketch in my series, hiking the steep trail to Angels Landing. 

1/30 Zion drawing- spying on deer

One of the first evenings I was in Zion park, my wife and I were heading out to hike some nearby trail when we noticed a family all crouched behind a fallen log. They were wildly taking pictures of these deer in the woods as though the deer were Hollywood movie stars. I could help but wonder if this was thier first time seeing wildlife up this close. It was funny to see thier excitement and watch then connecting with the park this way. 

...well that didn't last very long....

Not even a week into this challenge and I'm already unmotivated. I know that getting into a habit takes effort and pushing through those times you don't want to do it but here's the thing.  The underlining reason I was doing this challenge was to get myself into the habit of drawing everyday. As I started drawing from the prompts I found I kept asking myself "is this helping me get to where I want to go?" No was my daily response. Yes it was helping me sketch everyday but my biggest pressing project is the Zion residency coming up in March 2015. 

That got me thinking that maybe I should switch gears and focus on drawing my images for that project instead of just random sketches. So now here is my new challenge to myself, 30 drawings in 30 days for my Zion residency. Each day (hopefully) I will post a new drawing for my project, jump-starting me into the carving phase sooner, so that hopefully I can reach my goal of having all my prints printed before January 2015. That gives me 3 months! 

So here I go! I got up this morning and cut all of my Sintra for my prints so that I had the boards all ready to go. And here they are...

10- 8x10

10- 11x14

5- 16x20

5- 18x24

A total of 30 images for my residency show. So let the 30 day Zion residency challenge begin! 

Oh p.s. If your following me or happen to see what I'm working on, leave a comment or share this with others. I like to think that you all are enjoying what I'm doing but it's nice to get some interaction. It will also hold me more accountable if I knew others were watching me and expecting me to get a drawing done everyday. Thanks! 

Day 3/30 drawing challenge

Day 3: an evil monster. 

I thought that after creating a monster from my head one day it would be easier the next. Not really true. But here it is, my evil brain-sucking monster. 

2/30 drawing challenge

Day 2's challenge: a good monster. 

After not drawing out of my head for some time, this drawing was a challenge. 

I don't know the name of this monter but if the Wicked Witch of the West should of had him. He looks more loyal then flying monkeys. 

Day 1/30. Drawing challenge

To get started I just googled "30 day drawing challenge" to find a list of 30 drawing ideas. Some of them seemed pretty boring and unimaginative but soon I found one that seemed to be overall interesting. 

I'm not sure who created this list, but if it was you, thanks for the inspiration. 

Day 1: self portrait. 

The summer slump and my new resolve!

School starts up in a week. Even though I graduated my body clock still runs on the 3 month segments of time between semesters and summer. I look back on the summer and realize I have done nothing. No progress was made to move my art career forward and I am disappointed with myself. 

While I've been at work this summer, I've been able to listen to podcasts that I found on iTunes. Two podcasts in particular have been very helpful and motivating for me and I would recomend then to everyone. The first is "Achive your goals podcast with Hal Elrod" Each podcast Hal talks about principals and action steps to setting and reaching your goals. I have learned a ton of stuff and have been overly inspired from what he has taught and something that he constantly emphasizes is doing the daily little things. Taking consistent daily actions to achieve your goals. This constant reminder helped me realize that I wasn't working on my goals of being a productive working artist as often as I should, and in order to take my art to the next level I need to be working every day on something. 

The other podcast I listen to is "Artist helping artist podcast." This podcast is pretty great because it really goes in depth with a lot of the marketing and promoting side of the art business. Each episode covers different topics from getting a website, blogging, email lists, promoting your artwork on social media and so much more. I have really found this podcast helpful and inspiring. 

Like I said, these two podcasts are fantastic and if anyone out there is looking for some inspiration or motivation, these are great resources. 

Now my for my action. Inspiration is only good if there is action taken so after having been inspired to do more for my art career I have decided to commit myself to a 30 day drawing challenge to push myself into drawing and sketching more. One thing that Hal talks about in his podcast is accountability. He says to make your goals public and let others know about then. The reason for doing this is if other people are depending on you, you are more likely to follow through. So here it is my public declaration that for the next 30 days I am committing myself to drawing everyday. 

International print catalog

Just this week I received the "SIPS 14" catalog. A few months ago I submitted a few pieces of art to an international show in Egypt and got accepted. The university that was In charge of the show put together a catalogs and gave them to the artists who participated. So here it is, my 4th publication yet my first international publication!