Above is the result of three-four hours of work on the White-throated Sparrow lino. Yesterday I mentioned that you often make decisions that you later have to live with in lino. That has happened here and the print has headed off in a slightly more abstract direction than I at first anticipated. Still I get nervous with strict naturalism so perhaps this veer toward abstraction is both good and inevitable, at least for me.
This is a rough print, with the ink a little too tacky. That causes a loss of detail. In visualizing it with sharper lines however I think that it may be nearing completion.
I had some apare time yesterday that I couldn't really devote to the lino so I did a few more sketches from photos, in this case photos I've taken of Swamp Sparrows over the last couple of years. The one on the right shows the peaked head that they often exhibit. This is one of my favorite sparrows. A small watercolor of one hangs at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center for one more week in 'Wild at Art.' I have the feeling though that it will play a part in another print or painting soon. They are a really striking sparrow.
2 comments:
Hi Ken,
I really like the linocut so far, and I like the abstract direction. And the sparrow sketches are great. I definitely have a special place in my birding heart for sparrows.
Hi Gabrielle,
I ended up not changing it all that much after this version. It's always difficult melding bird and environment and I felt that anything more was just going to be too much, if it isn't already!
I've come to like sparrows too. If only they'd be more cooperative and not dive into cover as soon as I pick up my binoculars to get a good look. As I did the drawings I realized that they're really much more suited for etchings if I'm going to make prints of them. But I don't have the facilities for that at home and it was an interesting challenge trying to do this one as a lino.
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