Don't you just hate it when Illustration Friday doesn't give
a new word for the week? Not to be
deterred, I posted this as a continuation from last week's post
about putting flowers on the fallen soldiers in childhood battles. I'm not really sure how this plays with "soft", but I wasn't the one missing deadlines.
Giveaway!!!
Win a linoprint of this flower by leaving a comment. If you "follow" my blog by joining
my site (see right column), I'll give you 2 chances to win. If you're already a follower, just remind me
and I'll give you 2 tries too.
It's hard for me to believe I've been blogging for 5
years! I certainly didn't think I had
that much to write about, and if anyone would've told me how much art has to
happen in 5 years of posts I probably would never have started. It's been a blast and I've really enjoyed
getting to know so many of you and seeing your blogs in return. You're the ones who've made it fun and kept
me motivated to keep writing and creating.
THANKS!!!
I'm pleased with myself that I carved this linoleum and all
my blood stayed inside. Nobody really
appreciates the pain of my earlier carving attempts.
When I was a kid, I carved blocks of brown laundry soap into
sculptures... Okay, I carved blocks of
soap mostly into turtles. Dad would
give me a jackknife and I'd happily carve away until the blood started. Mom would take the knife away. This happened a lot. My dexterity didn't match my artistic vision,
and I had big dreams.
You'd think that either me or Dad would get smarter about
all this, but some say that children need a routine. Actually, Mom said that a lot so you'd think she'd understand the
importance of soap turtles in nurturing creativity. After all, she's the one who kept buying the Fels Naptha --
though now that I'm thinking of it, she may have started buying soap so I'd
quit carving harder things like sticks, firewood, and rocks?
You might think I'm kidding about the rocks, but I'm
not. Sandstone and soft shale by the
river seemed carve-able. I could incise
lines into it at any rate, and I could hone my knife on the stone. That made my knife really good at slicing
into my childish self.
Repeated carving lessons from Dad about always cutting away
from myself were a waste of time. At
some point I would be too focused on my creative vision to think about safety. At least I never put lead white coated paint
brushes in my mouth, and doctors are really good at stitching up cuts.
Anyway, back to the linocut... I carved the linoleum then
printed the image in blue on acid-free yellow paper. Then I got out my Prismacolors and colored details. I had fun coloring and may do some more in
my tv time at night. I like it blue on
blue without the pencil too. If you
win, let me know which way you prefer it. You never know, I might color a blue on blue version too depending on my tv time.
I got some more linoleum blocks at the store when I bought
the blue ink. Who knows what else I
might carve? Maybe turtles.
