Progress

I was thinking through parallels between painting and carving, and I realized that I'm going to have to see whites first because that's what happens when I carve-- a piece of the block comes out and the resulting space ends up white in the print.  No outlines in the beginning.  So I started with some heads of wheat that is ripening in the field below our house.  It was really easy to cut away the lights and leave traces and tool marks in the shadow areas.  I might have let a few more tool marks in 5069, but it's okay.  I actually like the tiny single wheat berry with its long whisker because the marks are stiff and bouncy like the wheat.

This afternoon Jacob and I went downtown to check out an abandoned building that he has been wanting to photograph.  While he was inside photographing I sat on a rock under a tree in the somewhat cool shade and drew the exterior.  A policeman came and asked me what I was doing, said he thought I was maybe shooting up some heroin.  He looked at my drawing and then walked on, didn't tell me to leave or anything.  When Jacob emerged a few minutes later our meter was up and we headed home to put some images together.

This is the best carving that I did tonight, all done by removing lights.  The white outline on the right I did at the very end.  This way of carving feels very good now.  I know I need a lot more practice, especially on bigger blocks.  I may actually free-carve the giant block I'm getting ready to carve for a steamroller print event at Asheville BookWorks in September.

Here's the composite that Jacob and I made this afternoon, his photograph from inside the old building, and my charlotte carving from last night, put together in Photoshop.