Fairy Tale Print

[Barbara Art]

Warning to Baren Exchange #35 participants: don't look if you want to be surprised!
This is a woodcut, 8" x 10", on Rives lightweight, printed with brownish-black ink that's a mixture of Graphic Chemical and Dan Smith. The exchange theme was "fairy tale," which seems easy, but was really hard for me. I finally found a story I liked, called The Boy Who Drew Cats. I'll put the story on my blog if you want to read it (it's pretty short). I really had fun doing this one, from working out the design to printing. I'm attaching a pic of my setup, too. It's all pasted up with foam core because I was printing on odd-sized paper. That strange purple object is the "spoonula," my main printing tool.
Barbara

[Eraethil]

Well done! Now you can relate even more with the protagonist, I assume?

[ploverwing]

Love it! What a great print!

[PrintmanDave]

I like your treatment of the whiskers. Negative in the black areas, positive in the white areas - EXCEPT the lower set of whiskers where they start in a white area, cross through a black area and continues into a white area. You chose to NOT go negative through the black area. Good choice. I think negative lines in that black area would have caused a visual distraction.

[Printmakerguy]

Nice work!! That looks like a very interesting print... And I like the printing setup, too- I've had some interesting 'rigs' like that in the past

-Andrew

[Diane Cutter]

Lovely, Barbara... Nice cutting and clean whites and a delightful image. It is no spoiler for those of us in the exchange; it only heightens the anticipation! And, yes, please tell us the story in your blog. I'm unfamiliar with it.

Diane

[Barbara Art]

Thanks for your comments, folks; sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I've been working on another print that I'll post in another thread.
Rick, sometimes I identify with the cats, sometimes with the kid who draws-
Dave, I did go through several changes about those whiskers. Though I liked the positive/negative idea, I thought it would draw too much attention to put the white lines through the black. I also considered putting red on the cat's paws and tongue, but decided that would just look strange.
Thanks, Amie! You, too, Andrew; I hope someday to try out your registration method. I'm just too lazy to get it together.
Diane, glad you noticed the clean lines. I wanted a contrast with the fuzzy, sort of messy fur on the cat.
As I said, this was fun to do. It's now in a show called "Evolving and Revolving," to which I also sent a previous print, "Kitty Puss" (posted it somewhere in the past).
Barbara

[JenZ]

Beautiful print! I love the use of positive and negative space. Well done!

Jen

[LynnM]

Interesting print, definitely need to read the story! I like the clean lines too.

[boundstaffpress]

This is a beautiful print.
I am drawn right into the story. Wonderful illustration.

[Barbara Art]

Thanks for your comments, Jen, Lynn and Justin.
When I came across the story, I HAD to choose it!
Barbara