Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Acorn Linocut - Part 1



I have been dreaming about giant linocut acorns for a while now so I decided it was finally time to attempt one.  I usually have an assortment of pods, seeds, and random plant parts sitting under my computer monitor and I stare at them all the time.  I think the acorn caps below have been sitting there for at least a year and it was finally time to make use of them.


I started this project by photographing the acorns and then composing them exactly how I want them in Photoshop. I then printed the photo and did a large sketch exactly the size I wanted to do the carving. Below is a short video of the sketch as it came along. (Sorry about the quality, I am just learning this video stuff!)



After finishing the sketch I then transferred the design to my plates. I originally wanted to make a SUPER GIANT print, but decided I'd better start with a size where I can buy the paper locally. So I went downtown to Suder's and bought a roll of mulberry paper and a sheet of their largest Stonehenge (38''x50''). I then had to decide what material to use for my plates. I wanted to use safety-kut because I have some arm issues and it is nice and soft to carve. But the down side was I would have to tile two sheets together to make the print (they sell a 26x30 "Monster" sheet). The other option was to carve out of wood or linoleum, but then I would have to buy real tools that can cut those materials. In the end I decided to go with the safety kut and hoped that fixing the seem wouldn't be too un-seemly. 

Below is a video of some photos of the carving process.



To see the inking process and final print, click here!


3 comments:

Jessica Jones said...

Wow, Vanessa! Looks super, and I love the in-progress videos. Great idea. The photos of the un-inked carving are beautiful on their own. Can't wait to see the final print.

Unknown said...

Love seeing the process! So cool!

Gina said...

This is so wonderful and love the process!!