It has been a few months since I experienced that fabulous feeling of finishing a linocut. I recently put down the last layer of ink — my favorite metallic gold — and the work was transformed. For the final touch, I want to apply gold leaf to a few of the white ripples, so the water will be rippling one way, but the sun is coming from the opposite direction.
I was all ready with my acrylic medium, my red oxide acrylic and my sizing, when I realized my folly. From my last foray into gold leafing I learned that the printing ink must be extremely dry, or the gold leaf will adhere all over the linocut and not just on the sizing. I so wanted to show the finished work in this blog, but you just can’t hurry that gold ink. Here is a partial peek at the work sans the gold leaf…
Since my last post, a few other layers have been applied as well. You will remember that I printed an opaque yellow tint over the blues. Next came an olive green layer producing a subtle change.
The rainbow roll with orange and the top and a bright yellow on the bottom brought ideas of space to the work.
I was unsure about where to go after this roll. I love the various greens, but felt they overwhelmed the piece. What had started out as a water scape was changing before my eyes. I decided to break out my favorite metallic gold ink and see what would happen.
With my bicycle gloves and huge roller, I created the image at the beginning of this post. The last layers of any reduction linocut take longer to dry, and the gold ink is notoriously pokey. I hope by this time next week to have applied some gold leaf so I can reveal the latest linocut.
Patience is hard for this printmaker.
