Earlier this week I finished a new woodcut of Yosemite National Park's El Capitan and this afternoon I printed the second color of a streetscape print (see the photo below). Today's printing went smoothly and thankfully I was able to mix a workable blue/green color. The next step is to carve a new block for the 3rd, 4th and 5th colors of the linocut print.

This is how the mountain relief print turned out - it's now drying for a couple weeks. It combines the use of both wood and lino blocks and I started it last summer but put it aside for a while. I decided to print the actual mountain using a gradation from dark to light. If you're curious about how the project started, you might check out the original post.

There are a couple different print projects hanging from the drying rack in various stages of completeness. The mountain print is coming along with one more wood block to print, which will add detail to the peak.

The streetscape at the bottom of the photo, though, has just been started with a light greenish blue layer. I was happy with how this delicate color printed, as I don't use pastel colors much. Next will be some darker highlights to the sky.

Relief prints in progress

Sometimes I put aside a carving project - like this Nepalese mountain print - when I can't figure out what direction to head. I posted about this print last August as I was carving a block of Shina wood for the mountain detail. The sky stumped me, though, so it was put on the back burner for five months. Now I have a plan I'm excited about and have printed the first two of four blocks (two wood and linoleum blocks each). I was happy with the semitransparent darker color having battled some new registration issues. Who knew it would be so difficult to register both lino and wood blocks for the same print?

Mountain Relief Print - Work in Progress

I traveled back to the Midwest for Christmas and New Year's and kept my eye out for prints along the way. Here are some shots from St. Louis and Chicago.

Chicago

Gouges sharpened, my first 2012 project is based on an old Italian sports car I saw last year. It's going to be a multi-block print using lino and wood.

1958 Nardi Blue Ray II Relief Print