Nearing Completion on the Seemingly Abandoned Goldfinch

American Goldfinch on Thistle. Late State of Multi-block Woodcut by Ken Januski.

No I didn't abandon ship on the multi-block woodcut of the American Goldfinch on Thistle, which it seems like I must have started months ago. Outside of the distraction of late visiting Osprey and the holidays the real reason for the delay is that I've been making too many incremental tests on proofing paper to really show anything.

Today I bit the bullet and printed what I believe will be the last color, outside of black, on the good Shin Torinoko paper that I'm printing on. The dark blue green is the newest color and I've changed it many, many times on proofs.

Below you see one of the last attempts at that color and it is much greener than the final color. I also tried a lighter blue and green and some variations on those. There is a vibrancy to the color above though that has finally dictated where the print would go.

As the original scene was in bright sunlight that's where I'd hoped to go. But artistically this higher contrast dark blue/green works much better.

American Goldfinch on Thistle. Late Proof of Multi-block Woodcut by Ken Januski.

In the proof above I've printed the other side of this block, one carved to just print black (at least so far!). I intend the black to pull everything together and especially to set off the brilliant contrast between yellow and black in the American Goldfinch. So the real question now is how much black to print. I've already removed some of what shows in this proof. I want the black to pull things together but not to overwhelm them as in a cartoon.

I've also run out of earlier proofs to test on even though I started out with 20. So the final testing before printing will either be in my mind or on some of what I'd hoped to be final edition prints. Time will tell. But I do have fairly high hopes for this. It is starting to look good to me!

AND, how could I forget, all of my work on my Etsy stores are on sale for 10% off on Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 only. The discount applies only to the art itself and not to shipping. See For Sale link on the right side of this page to access stores.