I don’t usually post anything quite as random as this but thought that I’d share it with you. The last of the day at the bottom of my garden. It’s the end of my holiday and I’m feeling a little melancholy.
Normal service will resume shortly…
Archives for the month of: August, 2010
Inspired by the graphics during the fight scenes in the Batman TV series from the 1970′s, these two colour prints are my most recent productions.
I cut the lino blocks whilst I was on holiday – a very relaxing way to while away the evenings! So I couldn’t wait to get printing again when I arrived back.
There are no images of the blocks being cut, or the prints being made this time, just the end results. This was a short run: only six of each were printed and will be for sale as soon as I get my website and shop revamped!
As the more regular readers of this blog may have noticed, I have been unusually inactive of late. I have been on a well-earned holiday with the Lestarets in deepest Devon, a place I have driven through many, many times en route to Cornwall, but never spent any time there.
Whilst some of you may groan and wail at seeing more boring holiday photographs on blogs like these, I reserve the right to post whatever the deuce I fancy! So here is a taste of my experience of this beautiful county, famous for its cream teas:
Unspoiled beaches, Enid Blyton style rockpools and seaside shops selling essential equipment for whiling away the days!
Strangely enough, there were no nets without colour…
Although we spent a great deal of the time at the coast, and stayed at a very lively harbour (the regatta was jolly great fun!) I was hugely disappointed with the general state of the marine communities visual appearance. Believe it or not, this boat was the most elaborately sign written I saw, with the majority of working and pleasure craft opting for adhesive vinyl letters in Helvetica Bold, either black or white. Alas.
I did visit the only place in the UK to have an exclamation point in its name though!
We enjoyed some spectacular scenery, and even more spectacular warnings. This sign was on the very edge of an almost sheer drop onto jagged rocks below. I can only compare this sign to hanging a warning around a lions neck bearing the words “DANGER! DO NOT PLACE YOUR HEAD IN THIS WILD ANIMAL’S MOUTH. HAZARDOUS BITING JAWS”
The view was worth it though. This was from the coast path south from Hartland Quay. The landmass just visible on the horizon is Lundy Island.
I took this photograph one full pace in front of the sign. Ha!
I will leave you with this image though. There is nowhere like the south-west of England for the sheer inventiveness of people in the attempt to extract money from unwitting tourists.
I was a little under pressure from young Upper and Lower Case to get to the beach that day, but if you are in the area, I’m sure many of you would make the effort.
I assure you that normal service will resume…
I’ve had to wait quite a while for the ink to dry because I over-inked on the third colour. So this evening I set to work on the last colour, knowing that the job was already compromised. I mention this now and would like to draw your attention to the first post in this series where I declared my intention to publicly explore four colour prints on the blog after a really disastrous first attempt. If I seem overly critical, it is just my way of evaluating what I have done and working out what needs to be done at the next ‘exploration’ – there doesn’t seem to be a better word to describe this. I am not an experienced and skilled printmaker, but someone who is making their way with the process: if we are not learning, we are not living.
So the final block is positioned on the jig. This time I have left on the main ‘cutaway’ areas as I wouldn’t mind any stray ink marks appearing on this layer.
There were many stray ink marks, that seemed to mucky up the print rather than add any ‘printerly’ marks, so I eventually cut them away.
First, a close up of all four colours. You can clearly see the effect the over-inking on the third block has had. I don’t really mind this personally, but I had not originally set out to achieve this effect, which looks a little like thermography. For my next multi coloured prints I will try to avoid this.
I am quite pleased with the results though:
The over inking has created these impression lines around the edge of the block, where the ink has squeezed out over the non-absorbent layer below. And the final image?
The title of this print is “Always Check The Label” which I will letterpress at the foot of the sheet in a week or two.
The question is, what to do with all these prints? Any suggestions? Do you want one? Why? Let me know…
Whilst these are drying, please check out my new blog about typography here.
When I started blogging about 18 months ago, I didn’t think I would be as enthusiastic about it as I am. I have posted over 200 entries in 37 categories which represents a lot of variety so I have decided to make some changes. The changes I am making will help to define the things I do and make, and allow this blog to be a record of my creative output and inspirations. So this blog will continue pretty much as it already does but I am filtering out the typographic elements and starting another blog purely about type, lettering and visual comminucation. Yes, another blog about type. Ah, but I’d like to think this one will be a little different…
As many of you will know, I am a bit of a typography nerd. I’m one of many – you may also be one too. One of those people who will watch a movie and complain that the end credits were poorly composed, or that the opening titles didn’t match the print marketing. One of those people who can identify the typeface on a bottle of lager in the pub and think “now wouldn’t that be a good quiz question!” One of those people who gives direction like “take a left at the big square bulding with the stacked white lettering on the corner, and go as far as the pub – you can’t miss it; it has a really elegant copperplate script on the sign…”
So my new blog will be about type. Not just type in abstract, but about the type and lettering that is around us – where we live – in our collections – in our cupboards and the dusty boxes in the attic. But what I hope will make this blog different, is that you will contribute. Yes, you. Not to comment - but to contribute. I will be asking you to submit examples and images of your own along with some text to support them. I will be setting up some themes and threads that I hope you find stimulating enough to seek out your own stuff and share it with us online. That’s the idea anyway.
The new blog is called “my type of…” and I now declare it open…
