Construction lines, second version

 At the start of last week's class I hadn't got very far with "construction lines", my second attempt at the concept. The lines are the grid of compass circles and certain points joined with straight lines, from which the shapes used in geometric patterns emerge. Previously I also printed the shapes and collaged them onto the printed lines. 

The blocks have been printed, and even juxtaposed, but I wasn't at all happy with the combination.

And they're a bit minimal, dull on their own -

Here's the sum total of work so far -

In class I printed both blocks with Payne's Grey and cobalt turquoise -

To be continued...

This rubbing, taken weeks ago, is to my mind the best outcome so far, and I'd almost be happt to leave it at that, or try a few versions of rubbings, rather than carry on with proper printing -

Woodblock prints: Construction Lines series 1

 A project in Spring term 2022, based on the compass and ruler lines that are used to start geometrical construction of patterns.

Working out the grids (and deciding which to use) -

Rubbings and printing -

At some point before cutting I randomly jettisoned some of the curved grid lines and felt much happier about how things were going - more open, more interesting, more accidental and surprising. A bit of experimentation with layout of cut star shapes and another block was ready to cut and print with sumi ink onto the watercolour backgrounds.

In fact the stars originated from a cutout grid; I debated whether to print the "net" or the stars and had to make a mockup to decide. On the print, you can see the altered grid of circles; on one side, almost all the lines are left, forming a sort of border, over which I sometimes printed diagonal lines -

"Warming up the board" on newsprint, and adding some leftover stars; just playing...

Three of the finished prints, the coloured stars cut out and glued on -

More finished prints ...

... and my favourites -