Revisiting a past failure

A couple of years ago I tried to make a print of a Salmon leaping a waterfall. Things didn't go well and I abandoned the print after about 3 colours. I've re-drawn the composition with hopefully a less wooden looking fish and started again.

Colour 1 

Colour 2

Colour 3

The first 3 colours build up the spray at the foot of the waterfall. Next I put the base colour on the body of the fish.

Colour 4

Colour 5

Colour 6

Colours 5 and 6 build up the patterning on the fish and the darker colouring on the water. There is one final colour after this which I printed this morning. Once its dry I'll scan and post a copy.

Wuthering Heights - Maybe??

Clearing Sky over Top Withens

12 colour reduction linocut - printed in 5 passes.

298mm x 198mm

Edition of 14

Printed on 220gsm Winsor and Newton smooth cartridge paper.

The final stage of the latest print and now fully dried. Whatever the merits of this ruins' claim to be Wuthering Heights it certainly sits in atmospheric and romantic isolation and draws a steady stream of tourists. Although on the day that my daughter and I hiked up to it we sat and ate our lunch beside it and were the only people there. Hikers following the Pennine Way pass along in front of  the building. Carly and I followed the footpath up to it from the Haworth road. The Bronte connection attracts a lot of visitors to the area around Haworth from Japan so on the wilds of this Yorkshire Moor, the footpath signs are written in both English and Japanese.

Out on the Moor

It's been some time since I seem to have completed an edition of prints, so to get over the feeling that I haven't accomplished much so far this year I made this quick linocut based on a sketch I did back in February at Top Withens. Keeping to a restricted colour palette and the number of passes to 5, it's much simpler than my usual prints.

The first colour is a blend of blue through grey to pale yellow.

Next another three colour blend from grey, through pale grey to ochre. The ink mixed on the slab and then printed over the first colour. This has completed the sky in just two passes.

The third pass is a dark grey through brown to a darker ochre colour in the foreground.

The fourth pass is a two colour blend of darker grey to brown. This adds texture to the ruin and trees and more detail into the foreground grasses.

The final and fifth dark brown completes the print. I'll post a better photo once dry.