Printing "Mind Monsters 2"

Enough colours (watercolour and gouache) are on hand ... what to choose?

 The workbench has been cleared and is ready to use - first task, wet and wrap the woodblock, the cut and dampen the paper -

 That took just ages in the home environment. And what a muddle when i came to printing!

 At the end of the day, it all gets cleared away. I found that very satisfying, for some reason.

A record of results, showing that I should stick with simple things for a while! My big, bad idea is to leap into making a sort of diptych, in book form. In some artist's memorable words, "I know what it will be but I don't know what it will look like" - and this experimentation is part of getting towards that "what it will look like" component.

 On the left, a tracing of the original drawing, for reversing onto the woodblock, and below it, a rubbing of the juxtaposed blocks.

Second column, trying out colours - on paper that turns out, despite thinking and measuring, not to be the right size after all - and below that, making a balls-up of getting the other block in the right position. Duh.

Third column the other block is in the right position at last! And for the final print, I remembered that my plan was to print on one of the "pages" only. (The paper is thin and there is show-through.)

Being able to see "the diptych" gives rise to all sorts of thoughts about changes in the next version. And I'd like to get a really good, even print - that will take practice of course -

Having set up the work area and spent most of the day concentrating on the printing process, I'm ready to do it again - it will be easier next time and hopefully I can start thinking about the aesthetics rather than the process.