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.