"Elephant Skull"

2.5" x 4.75" (image) 3" x 6" (paper)
Oil-based ink on bright white paper 

This engraving is carved with a dremel and the block used was end-grain Basswood. The image is taken from my recent drawings from the collection at the Wagner Free Institute for Science. Earlier this week I also made engravings of a Dolphin Skull and Buffalo Skull. 

Sadly, this is a one of a kind print. I'm experimenting with wood engraving for the first time with some unconventional materials, and after creating this Artist's Proof I damaged the block while cleaning it, so no further edition can be printed. Live and learn. 

"Buffalo Skull"

1.5" x 2" (block) 5.5" x 7.5" (paper)
Oil-based black ink on natural paper 

It's my second such engraving (my first posted earlier today in preparation for this one.) The image is taken from my recent drawings from the collection at the Wagner Free Institute for Science. 

I'm pretty excited about it. I want to play with my dremel more. Although I need to get some earplugs. My head is throbbing from the sound.   

Hanko for "a show with zefrank"

I took about 6 weeks off from writing in this blog. Didn't plan it, just happened. (Insert excuses here.) Moving on...


This is a print from a one by one inch wood stamp I made to use as my own signature seal. It was part of a collective project for a show with ze frank.

I spent more time deciding on what image to include than I spent actually making the stamp. I even drew two other possibilities, both hairless cats. But in the end I decided on this half upsidedown strawberry, half cat skull. I love the juxtaposition of a plump, juicy fruit with a reminder of mortality. And why a cat skull? Hard to say, really. Perhaps because it distances me and viewers a bit from the harshness of that reminder. Or maybe because it further emphasizes the other end of a spectrum to feature an outright carnivore with sharp canine teeth alongside a tasty fruit. Maybe something else deep in my subconscious that hasn't yet occurred to me. Whatever the reasons I like the way the leaves and seeds of the strawberry visually echo the cat's teeth.

The K and M are (obviously) for my initials. I could lie and say that I planned to do them backward to go with  how half of the image is upsidedown, but I really just made this stamp so spontaneously directly on the wood and forgot that it would print backward. So actually I had drawn it so it read M then K from left to right but the K was deliberately backward. Since it printed the mirror image the K is in the correct orientation, but it reads in the backward order. Kind of all worked out despite my bumbling. Funny that.

"Vampire Skull"

Two layer reduction, Artist's Proof, 8" x 12".

I'm trying my hand at some more illustration work. My mother has written a vampire novel based on Hamlet, and soon it will be available for sale for Kindle. An image of a skull with sharp, elongated canines seemed an obvious choice. When the final cover design is finished and the book goes to market, I will announce it on this blog. The image I'm using for the finished cover is actually a four-layer reduction in slightly different colors. I did this image as a one-of-a-kind extra because I wanted to see what just these two layers looked like in red and black. This print is available for purchase here. 

Overall I'm pleased with this print. It is accurately drawn, detailed, and graphic enough to catch the eye, while at the same time the grain of the wood and the carved marks are prominently featured. I like how the vampire teeth don't jump out at you right away; at first glance it appears to simply be an illustration of a human skull.

I also like that this doesn't look like my typical work. I feel my style, with its bright colors, primitive aesthetic elements, and bizarre, sometimes silly or kitschy imagery, isn't a good fit with my mother's fiction. I knew I would have to try something different for these book covers (she has several novels which I hope to design covers for soon.)  I hope to create a series of woodcuts which are a little more subtle in color palette and purely mood-based than my fine art prints.