Up Early With the Birds

OK, first of all I need to let all involved know that your prints are on the way, apart from Lemur Lady's, because she's off gallivanting for a few weeks. Sorry for the delay, but I've been stuck in work and marooned miles away from a post office. All is well now though.

I'm enjoying a little holiday from work now for a week. There are all kinds of plans afoot for painting and some more lino cuts. Also much relaxing and spending time with my sweetie.

Yesterday we went shopping and bought a new couch and chair. I then developed blsiters on my eyes searching online for rungs and whatnot. In my travels I came across some wallpaper that made my soul sing, two lots of it actually. One is peacock feathers, which I adore, but the other is also gorgeous and (kind of) matches the patterned bits of the couch. I have pictures here, but not of the chair. if you can imagine a little seat made entirely of the patterned fabric from the couch cushions, then that's it. I have the squee.

Couch

The two wonderful wallpapers

I've sent off for samples of these. I desperately want the peacock pattern, but the leaves will go better with the furniture. I'll decide 100% when I see them in the flesh, but the leaves are definitely the sensible option. Me. Sensible. Imagine it.

Oddly enough I do like to live in a monochromatic environment. I find this peculiar since I work with colour all the time and find nature with all its variety so inspiring. Maybe I need restful dullness in order to relax? I did spend some time looking at bright purples and teals, but when it came to actually doing the deed I hopped straight back to black and grey (exactly the "colours" I have now). I think my hub was pleased; I could see him looking a bit panicky when I talked about decorating in wild peacock colours. He'd live with whatever I picked, bless him, but I'd rather not see him wince every time he steps into the living room.

Speaking of my better half, I'm going to wake him up now. I've been up by myself since silly o'clock and it's about time someone entertained me. He wins the honour. Not sure he'll see it that way, mind you.

And the Winners Are....

A massive thank you to all who joined in the giveaway. I really mean it when I say I'd like to give you all something, but alas I just can't afford to*** (see below for an addition to this)

I hope you will all be as happy as I am to congratulate:

Octopus Winner - Lemur Lady

Peacock Winner - Nanfan Jewellery

Turquoise Garden Winner - Janice Ashworth

And just to show you all that it was all done with scientific accuracy, here are the screen grabs

If the winners will be so kind as to message me on Folksy, Facebook or at joolsy (at) gmail (dot) com I'll have your art in the post later in the week.

*** And if anyone who entered and didn't win is really desperate to have one of the prints, please also message me and you can have one for £5 plus postage (just to cover my costs). This is limited to those whose names are on the spreadsheet here, as a thank you for your support and all the lovely kind words, which I really wasn't expecting.

Giveaway!

Well I've finally reached the magic 300 likers on Facebook. This marks a huge milestone and since there are no bells and whistles over there I'm making some right here.

To celebrate, I am giving away three, yes THREE lino prints. All you need to do is comment here and let me know which one you'd choose for yourself.

At the end of this week I'll put all of your names into a random number generator and the winning three folks will receive their choice of print in the post.

Simples!

Here are the choices:

Octopus (in this colour)

Peacock (in black, lilac, turquoise or green)

Turquoise Garden

Also, if you bring your friends to my Facebook page and I manage another 50 likes this week I'll add another print to the offer.

And Flowers Wednesday

The promised photos of the experiments I did with the flowers from yesterday. Just a change of colour or a different background alters the whole look of the print. I'm not sure which one I like best. A bit of daylight for the photography would have helped too, but (working) beggars can't be choosers, eh?

Flowers Tuesday

I've been hard at it on my day off work, determined to get a print cut and finished. I based it on some of my paintings, which is probably quite apparent. I did a load of prints in black, which I may hand colour later. I also got a few onto interesting backgrounds, but I haven't photographed those yet. More pics soon.

Back to it

Once again I begin with apologies for my absence. This is becoming a bit dull of me lately. It's been a while since I've had the opportunity for a flurry of activity (I keep getting called into work on my days off), but at last I'm on a roll. Today at least. I've been making some ACEOs, as well as popping out for lunch and spending time photographing. I want a medal now, or one of those little trophies you put on the mantlepiece. Oh and I'll need a mantlepiece too, while you're at it.

So without further ado, here's the fruit of this latest Tuesday off.

I've mounted and framed them this time. They're the little cheap frames from Ikea, with mounts that I cut myself, so it's a really inexpensive, yet pretty way to display them. Next time I go to Ikea I think I'll buy a whole bunch of these and start selling the ACEOs fully presented. I think they'd look lovely on a desk or bedside table, and I reckon I could do the whole lot with postage for about £10 or £11. I don't think that's bad for an original artwork.

Flowery Thing

I need to go and wash all my printing stuff up, so just a quick and dirty post to catalogue today's print.

This is inspired by some of my paintings from last summer. I tried printing it in blue too, but it looked like snowflakes. not necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't what I was going for.

More Octopus Goodness

I grabbed some evening time during the working week to produce these. I've listed them for sale all over the place (OK, just on FB and Folksy) if you're tempted to bag one as a treat. Seafood anyone?

And a little offering to the more steampunk orientated people out there. I do like a little bit of paper burning.

My Lino Print Making Process

I've often meant to do a blog with a work progress theme, so today I made my idle self photograph stuff as I went along.

My day off has been put to very good use. I've been working since before 8am and just finished a little while ago. I set myself a very challenging project, which has been flitting round in my head since the weekend.

First I needed to do some drawings. I used a ruler and compass to get the basic shape of the compass, then drew the octopus freehand.

Next I arranged the image the way I wanted it and traced it with a very soft pencil onto tracing paper.

The image was then transferred old school style onto the lino sheet by rubbing the back of the tracing paper. I have to use a really strong desk lamp for this, as the lino is quite a dark colour, not the best for seeing pencil lines.

Next comes the cutting. I use several different sizes of lino cutting tools to achieve different grades of lines. I do tend towards the very fine one though, since I enjoy creating lots of detail.

I made some mistakes and had to use a little bit of modelling putty to fill in one gap. It doesn't show up too badly in the finished print, but I know it's there even if nobody else does.

The final stage is to mix up coloured inks with a printing medium and create the finished image by rolling a thin layer of colour onto the lino. Paper is placed onto the ink and burnished down with a nifty little tool I found in an art shop recently.

Here's my finished nautical design. It's ever so slightly smaller than A4 size and has taken me a total of about 10 hours from start to finish.

Busy Day With Birds

In a superhuman effort of Saturdayindustriousness I have done all manner of busy things today. Having used the evenings this week to get plenty of printing done, I cut mounts and took photos this afternoon. This came after the weekly food shop and a quick pop to work for a bottle of wine (not a sort I've ever seen in the shops, hence my special journey). I also did some Folksy listings and Facebook updates of my peacocks, before being ever so domestic and doing home made coleslaw with jacket potatoes for dinner.

I am bout to have a glorious bath before putting on pyjamas and settling down to watch a film. Goodness knows I must deserve it.

These prints have turned out well. I shan't be a bore and put all the colours here, but I've done a lot of experimentation with different hues and graduations. Oddly enough, the plain black has been the most commented on, and it's also my personal favourite (one has already gone to a new home). I have a great idea for my next one, but it's going to be extremely complicated and time consuming, Still, I think they're so satisfying to do and I won't mind a bit.

Peacock Day

I had such a slow start today, I didn't think I was ever going to get settled into any work at all. Still, once I'd decided on my theme I got motoring. I painted an ACEO which has already sold (yay for first sale of 2012!) and did a lino cut, of which I have a very ropey photo. I'll take a better one when it's daylight.

Part Two

Here I am, back just like I said.

Two paintings finished and a little trial of printing under my belt. The latter is no great shakes, I was just needing to get a feel for it after a gap of about 30 years since my last venture. Gawd, how old? Still, it was fun and I think I'll be fine with it. I didn't take any photos, I'll save that for when I do something good. I do have pictures of the watercolours though. Tadaa!