Nibblefest Art Contest Theme Books

This month's Nibblefest Art Contest theme is Books.  I've listed 3 items... some of my hand made one page wonder books.

   
A Little Book of Zen, the catalog for one of my exhibits of artworks created by the universe... book is made from one sheet of folded fine art paper that was giclee printed using epson fine art inks.

 
Flocked Butterflies, a set of 3 little sketch books. Insert made from single sheets of accordion folded fine art paper.

Flocked Flourishes, a set of 3 little sketch books. Insert made from one sheet of folded fine art paper.



All of these books are part of the monthly Nibblefest challenge on ebay.  In this theme based contest artists list up to three artworks (at least one of which must be an original) with a starting bid of 99 cents.  You can see lots and lots of great artworks by searching "NFAC" on ebay.  You're sure to see something you love and can afford!!!

Illustration Friday: Burning

This weeks illustration challenge for Illustration Friday is Burning. I think the above artwork is a fine illustration of the theme! This work was one of 4 woodcut images printed atop digital printouts that were then tipped into editioned books. The accompanying book text for this image is ""How About a Little Fire Scarecrow!" ~Wicked Witch of the West"

First I created a collage of digital imagery

Then I created a woodblock printing plate

Then I blurred the digital collage in photoshop to give it a watercolor painting effect. I printed the digital collage on fine mulberry paper from my canon printer. I then hand printed the woodblock plate on top of the digital printouts. I did an edition of 10 for hardbound books sewn by my late mentor Carol Wagner. I also did an edition of 4 printed on masa paper that were sewn into soft bound books by me. The other three images I created have been printed on 8.5x11" 100% cotton rag in editions of 25 for framing. This one is ready for me to print the edition suitable for framing.

See my blogs about this project at:
http://phare-camp.blogspot.com/2006/10/bookarts-midterm.html
http://phare-camp.blogspot.com/2006/10/autmn-follies-first-five-spreads.html
http://phare-camp.blogspot.com/2006/10/autmn-follies.html

The Lovers Keyline is Complete

The Lovers Keyline block is complete

This is a photoshop phake proof. This is what I hope the printing of this will look like tomorrow when I proof then transfer this keyline to the woodblocks I will use to carve the color plates.

Hierophant Blue Block and Lovers Key Block

The blue block for the Hierophant is carved

These are the printed proofs of the adjusted keyline for the Hierophant.

I've started carving the Keyline block for the Lovers

Here is the lovers with changes I made to the design. I made the figures larger. I changed the bouquet the bride carries and I put lotus blossoms in the pool of the unconscious.

Tarot Update

Priestess test with brownish lines stenciled in the library. think I will add another line in the upper left where it's a bit empty. I think a grayish violet would also work best in here to get a little contrast with the golden shades. Also think I will dry stencil just a little white in the library ceiling.

Emperor with chromatic gray glaze to mute the background. Used a stencil for this. The experiment with the cut marks didn't work as planned but I think I will try it on the press and make some plain keylines just to try and push the envelope a little. Although I wont experiment/mess with the plates until I've done an edition of these first.

I thought the firsts tests with the glaze were to light and tried variations of the glaze with more and more pigment. I like the darkest one best. We'll see what the adviser thinks...I also put gold on the sword and in some of the above in the turtle, the crown and/or the sceptor. there are touches of blue in the globe as well. I prefer last emperor with the dark background with only a little blue in the globe and gold in the sword.

Emperor Proofs

experimenting with the location of the strength archetypes. i like the above right one a lot.

My advisor likes the one on the above right the best, I also like it a lot.

the above left one is my favorite, if I did this I would make the floor gray and darker gray, but the adviser rightfully pointed out that it doesn't provide a sense of place and that you don't quite get the sense of passages as much in this as in the above compositions. Passages are important to me in this one...

We have emperor proofs. I don't like how the throne and the background merge. I was thinking of subduing the yellow but my adviser gave me a better idea.

what i will do is create a plate that i can print a chromatic gray glaze over just the back ground without effecting the foreground. This will also give a sense of space to the image. She also pointed out that I may want to make the eagle darker so it contrasts highly with the background.

Chromatic gray is a gray color created by mixing two complimentary colors (opposites on a color wheel [red/green, blue/orange, yellow/violet) or by mixing all three primary colors (red, yellow and blue). Varying the percentage of how you much you mix of each of the primaries you can get hues of brown, warm gray or cool gray.

I also noticed that the cut marks didn't print in the above proofs like it did in my keyline prints. this is because i used a larger brayer (ink roller). since the brayer is the size of the plate it doesn't dip down into the open spaces. I'm going to try a few color proofs using a smaller brayer on the black keyline so that I can see if the textural effects I like in the keylines below will translate well in the color whole...oh, oh-oh-oh, i just thought -- i will use a smaller brayer on the keyline to ink the chromatic gray glaze, use a stencil to block the foreground then use the larger brayer to roll black ink. Since the larger brayer wont touch the gray glazed cutmarks I'll achieve two shades on one block! I may not have to carve another plate after all...woo hoo! I had a plausible idear!

Master's Update 2-18-2009

Empress proof red state and yellow state

Empress proof blue states. On the left I used lots and lots of medium for more transparency. The one on right was the 1st state which I found to make the sky a little too intensely purple.

Empress Keyline states

The four colors brought together in one. The one on left is the 1st one printed using the blue that I found to pigmented. Don't want the sky to be that purple. the one on Right is just right; although I believe I will carve out much of the moon.

Lighter blue proofs. The one on right is just right the one on left is too light.

tried to print a priestess block for spot color, specifically for the library perspective lines. Mistakenly grabbed an unvarnished block and the ink bled...If I can see the kentos (registration marks) well enough I will use this block, otherwise it goes unused...when I tried to print another one the ink started acting strange on the mylar. It was drying before I could transfer. Something must have gotten in the ink or on the plate and was reacting with the ink. I will try again as I need two spot color blocks for this print. The other spot color block I'm not happy with as it looks to be off registration -- although I may find this to be untrue after a proofing...

The priestess keyline with the old lines removed from the library.

The following documents are my research on the hermit card. I start by looking at the same card from 4 different decks and writing down every little iconic thing I think of while looking at it. Then I do more research with books.

the following documents are my research into the various meanings of the hermit card, modern and historical. I use several books from my own collection of books on the Tarot. See the bibliography at the end of this blog. Remember you can always click on any of these images to see them enlarged, afterward click your browser's back button to return to this blog.

Research BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Akron & Banzhaf, Hajo. The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards. Connecticut: U.S. Games. 1995
Berti, Gianluca, Gonard, Tiberio. Tarot of the New Vision. Italy: Lo Scarabeo. 2005
Greenway, Leanna. Simply Tarot. New York: Sterling/Zamezi. 2005
Hoeller, Stephan. The Fools Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot. Illinois: Quest. 2004
Huson, Paul. Mystical Oringins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage. Vermont: Destiny. 2004
Jayanti, Amber. Living the Qabalistic Tarot. New York: Weiser, 2004
Laurence, Theodor. How Tarot Speaks to Modern Man. NY: Bell. 1972
Levitt, Susan. Introduction to Tarot. Connecticut: Us. Games. 2003.
Lionnet, Annie. The Tarot Directory. New Jersey: Chartwell. 2002
Pollack, Rachel. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdon. London: Element. 1997
Wang, Robert. Tarot Psychology. Canada: Marcus Aurelius. 2007

Empress: Getting Ready to Proof the 4 color blocks

"Hook 'em Horns"

Happy Year of the Ox
Hope it Rocks!!!

trying to work out ways to get deep perspective back into the Priestess' library

Yellow Empress Block

Red Empress Block: workin' the cut marks here!

Blue Empress Block

Empress Keyline block

Fools in Space

The Emperor Keyline is near completion, the Empress, with all her garden detail requires frequent breaks and is taking me longer than anticipated.

This is the press setup for printing the woodcut plates. I went to Lowes and the older fella in the lumber department knew I needed rails "to lift the rollers on the press" before I'd even finished saying what I was looking for. He must be familiar with the printing process! These pieces were already cut and price and the perfect size to fit the press bed and the perfect thickness to accomodate the plates.

I really like the smoother dispersion of the inks in the damp paper printing, there is a lot less pebbling in the larger color fields. The image on the left I laid down the inks in one pass of the brayer. In the one on the right I laid down all the colors in one pass of the brayer but on the blue I did an additional curving pass on the top and bottom edges to create a deeper blend. I feel this gives the image more depth. I'm not happy with the registration on this one. The elements in the most of the prints are in registration, the biggest problem is in the text, especially the caption at the bottom. I will probably re-carve and re-print this one when I've completed all the cards for the masters. For future pressings I'm probably going to have to adhere L-shaped edges to the sides of all the cards to ensure cleaner registration while using paper that is deckled on all four edges. That is simply not going to help with these plates since the registration is clearly off in the bottom caption in every card this shows the text registration is off in the carving.