Triceratops for Teens

I made this little 2-color reduction during the woodcut class for teens I'm teaching this week (see here and here.) I wanted to have something to trade with the students in exchange for copies of their lovely work. I printed different versions and am letting them pick which one they want to keep.

Finished Dino-pots

Anyone remember the dino-pots I started to make back in June? I finished them!

Dinosaur Monotype

Well, the school year has certainly hit the ground running. My mind is packed full of curriculum I've been designing and trying to learn the names of all my new students.

This is a monotype of a dinosaur I made this week. I don't have much to say about it other than I like it and it was fun to make.

Baren Forum Exchange #73: "Bathroom Dinos"

I just finished mailing my prints for Baren Forum Exchange #73. Paper size was 10" x 15", but there was no technique challenge or theme, so I decided to have a little fun and turned one of my dino drawings of my kids' plastic dinosaur toys into a four-color reduction print. These two in particular are "Bluey Neck" and "T-Rex", often used as tub toys.

Sunday Sketchbook: Plastic Toy Dinosaurs

I'm still not sure where this dinosaur toy line of interest is going, but at least I'm having fun.

Sketchbook Sunday: Dino-pot Ideas

This week I finished shaping some new pinch pots (see below) that I want to draw on, but I was having trouble deciding what to draw. So I pulled out my sketchbook and a bunch of plastic toy dinosaurs to use as references, and came up with some ideas.

Speaking of dinosaurs, or more specifically, representations of dinosaurs primarily aimed at children, I'm still trying to get at something about that with my art. Should probably explore it more with relief printmaking. Stay tuned...

"Plesiosaur Swimming In Circles"

Plesiosaur Swimming in Circles
30" x 22"
mixed media (watercolors, collagraph, woodcut)

This is yet another one-off print that branched from work on The Nautilus and the Ammonite. 

I seriously need to get some dedicated time in a professional screen printing studio to further explore these ideas and issues. Eventually... 

"T-Rex Enters"

T-Rex Enters 
30" x 22"
mixed media (watercolors, collagraph, woodcut)

This is another one-off print that branched from work on The Nautilus and the Ammonite. I know the color has something to do with what's happening with these - Tyranosaurus is strongly associated with red and yellow in my mind. I know these associations have some connection to plastic toys and children's book illustrations from both my own childhood and what I've been constantly exposed to as a teacher of kids and primary caretaker of my own kids. I'm not sure where this is going, but I really hope I manage to find the time and space to explore dinos further.  

"Wandering Stegosaurus"

Wandering Stegosaurus
30" x 22"
mixed media (watercolors, collagraph, woodcut)

I'd been wanting to take the woodcuts I've made for The Nautilus and the Ammonite and use them in other works of art. This is one finished piece. I'm working very intuitively on these, and even though I was consciously trying to make it more asymmetrical, that wasn't working so I ended up with this instead.

Collabortive Dino Linos: Sunset Return

Linocut over watercolor (unique print) 

11.5" x 9" on 140 lb. watercolor paper 

This is the last of four collaborative dinosaur linocuts I've made with my daughters. The first three were posted here, here, and here. As with the third, this print is based on a drawing by my 4-year-old daughter Bebe. 

Clouds roll in, the moon sits high, and the air has begun to cool. Darkness is coming. 

Collaborative Dino Linos: A Perilous Valley

Linocut over watercolor (unique print) 

11.5" x 9" on 140 lb. watercolor paper 

This is the third collaborative dinosaur print I've made with my daughters. The first were posted here and here. They were both based on drawings by my older daughter. This print is based on a drawing by my younger, 4-year-old daughter Bebe. 

I walk, but unsteady, continuing to move forward, though the rising wall and turbulent atmosphere does not bode well for my future. 

Collaborative Dino Linos: Ailing

Linocut over watercolor (unique print) 

11.5" x 9" on 140 lb. watercolor paper 

This is the second collaborative dinosaur prints I've made with my daughters. The first was posted here. This print was based on a drawing by Lysi, my 7-year-old. 

The colors are pretty and playful, but everything here  makes us sick. 

Collaborative Dino Linos: Hitting the Wall

Linocut over watercolor (unique print) 

11.5" x 9" on 140 lb. watercolor paper

This is another collaboration with my 7 year old daughter. (The first can be seen here.) I've resumed work on the Nautilus and the Ammonite project and I decided I need some children's drawings of dinosaurs in the background of one of the double-page spreads. However, I'm also using the blocks to make some one-off finished works in their own right such as this. This is also building on what I started with these screen prints made last year.

For this piece I instructed Lysi to draw a T-Rex from a specific reference, and then I turned her drawing into a linocut. I did a watercolor painted background before printing. I'm working on a few of these, and with each I'm trying to not have strong expectations about the final product and frequently pause and with each decision carefully respond to what has already happened. In this case the drawing of the dinosaur struck me as rather emaciated, which drove me to give him a grey, flat, and empty environment and to leave the carved marks in front of his face that suggest he's walking into a wall, in the sense of being hungry and out of options.

Stegosaurus

In addition to Plesiosaurs and Tyrannosaurs Rex from my last post, I have made this Stegosaurus. This is just a proof. As far as placement goes, he's likely to be lurking somewhere in the background of The Nautilus and the Ammonite picturebook.

Plesiosaurs and Tyrannosaurus Rex

More work that I've been doing at the Sunny Point Artist Residency. These are first proofs of woodcuts that are intended to be part of the backgrounds in my book project The Nautilus and the Ammonite. The book is mostly set during the Cretaceous period, hence the dinosaurs in the background. 

Okay, technically plesiosaurs are marine reptiles but not dinosaurs, but lived during the same epoch and went extinct in the same event. Plus they are equally amazing-looking ancient fossils that have deeply captured peoples' imaginations ever since their discovery. 

I selected wood boards with dense grain and really took the wire brush to it in order to bring out the organic textures, emphasize flatness, and give the creatures a more ghostly appearance. I'm especially loving the knot in the live plesiosaur. 

Dinosaur Screen Prints

It took over six months, but I finally got back to Maryland to do some more screen printing with my friend and fellow artist C. W. Brooks. Last time I did studies of ammonites. This time, another group of creatures that died out in the K-T Extinction: dinosaurs. 

This is related to what I was working on last time because it is preparatory work for a new book project: The Nautilus and the Ammonite, a picture book based on this anonymously-written poem. It tells the tale of two friends who float, swim, and witness wonders together. Tragically, the ammonite passes away, leaving the nautilus to continue on alone, hoping someday to be reunited. It is a moving narrative that opens many avenues of thought that I long to explore through visual imagery. 

Back in December the idea of making a book was still a mere notion. But I applied for residencies to begin serious work on the project and was accepted to the Sunny Point Artist-In-Residence program through the Arts Center of Yates County.  For ten days in September, I'll be devoting nearly every waking moment to developing the story board and first finished imagery for this new book. Exciting, no? 


Anyway, clearly there must be some dinosaurs in this book, at least in the background, as it is set during the Cretaceous. Plus it will be a picture book and children love dinosaurs. Come to think of it, who doesn't love dinosaurs? 

Roar. 



This last photo is of Brooks cleaning up. The canvas hat keeps hair out of their screenprints.