My newest linoleum block print is of an airplane window seat view at dusk. It's printed with Schmincke Aqua Linoprint Ink on 250 gsm Stonehenge paper. I was playing with that feeling of flying over a city and looking out at the sprawling, lit up urban landscape below.

I remember that great 1990's Liz Phair song, "Stratford-On-Guy," which starts off with the lyrics, "I was flying into Chicago at night...." That song's video on YouTube is definitely worth a watch. And, for a deep dive into that track, check out PopMatters' take on it.

Here's a little video I made while printing the final layer on my small press, which is a Blick Econo Etch Model II Press. The linocut is part of a series of airplane window view artworks and is now available in my Etsy shop. If you have any questions about how my prints are made, please feel free to email me!

Printing an airplane window view linocut on an Econo Etch Model II Etching Press

I've got a long history of exploring airplane window views in my art, as no surprise to many of you. For instance, I use this aerial view from a plane window linocut a lot online for marketing purposes and it was also used as a book cover. I did a black and white airplane window seat print, too.

I always try to snap some photos from the window seat as references pictures, though, these days, I'm often sitting in the middle and leaning over my son or daughter who are enthralled with something else. Here are a few photos of the sky, land patterns, clouds and airplane wings that I used for my newest art project.

Some references photos for my new airplane window seat print

I wanted to do something a little different with this new print, allowing for more spontaneity and experimenting. First, I did some simple illustrations to play with compositions and colors. I came up with a rough plan and used masking tape to block off areas of a linoleum block while inking the plate for the background sky. I printed several different layers on top of each other. A separate lino block was used for the black layer. Here's a shot from Instagram that helps illustrate the process.

Airplane Window View Linocut Work in Progress

Since I peeled off the tape before printing, I can't print an edition of identical prints but I used some of the lighter ghost prints that I got from the same block. As a result, no two prints are exactly the same.

These are two early versions that I printed on my Blick Econo Etch Model II Press and I'm continuing this series of window seat prints. The new linocut prints are available in my Etsy shop where I have numerous travel and airport prints for sale. 

Two versions of the new airplane window view print. Printed on my Blick Econo Etch Model II Press.

2018 Update - I now have a review of my Blick 999 Model II Etching Press and its smaller cousin, the Blick Econo Etch Model II Press after using them for over five years.

My printmaking world is getting bigger and better. A new etching press was delivered last week by truck freight and the deliveryman was nice enough to wheel the crate directly into the garage (the shipment weighed about 200 lbs).

The first step was to unscrew the top off the crate so I could take a look at the press. It's a Richeson / Blick 999 Model II. What this all means for me is that I'll be able to make prints up to about 17" x 35" - much larger than my existing press allows.

I spent a lot of time looking for press benches and had trouble finding one that met my space, functionality and budget requirements. Having used an IKEA kitchen cart for my smaller press, I immediately looked back to IKEA for options. I found my solution when browsing through their Emeryville store and stumbled upon the HEMNES coffee table. It's made out of solid wood, measures 46.5" (L) x 29.5" (W) x 18.125" (H) and has a shelf underneath the main table surface.

I decided to do an IKEA 'hack' by stacking and attaching the two tables and adding heavyweight casters to the bottom. The tables were easy to assemble (less than an hour each) and were connected together with metal corner braces. The trickiest part was attaching the casters I got from a hardware store. The legs didn't have enough surface area to screw in the casters so I had to widen the legs by about 3/4" by screwing in a small woodblock on the outside of each leg. If I want the bench to be a little lower, I could saw off a few inches from the four legs.

Overall, the bench's benefits are that it's tall (I'm tall), mobile, less costly, and has three flat surfaces underneath the press. The shelves will be perfect for storage and large sheets of paper used during a print run. Two of the shelves can be taken out without taking apart the bench. Now I need to put it all to good use!

New Blick 999 Model II Etching Press and IKEA Bench

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Lake Tahoe Linocut

This is how the Lake Tahoe linocut that I recently posted about turned out after the final colors were printed. It's a reduction print and will be a very small edition (less than 10 prints) after I toss out the misprints.

With two shows in December and a camping trip coming up, I'm happily cranking out several new prints including this 10"x13" ski-themed poster. The first block (sky and mountains) was done in multiple shades of gray and I'm now carving the second block (on the right of the photo), which will be printed on top of the first image with green, blue and black.