Boardwalk Nights part 17

After work today I drove directly to the Studio to finish the current block and print it. Got out my tools and in a few minutes took care of the cop's belt accessories and a few minor things I had noticed in the rubbing. Then I moved onto that unfinished part of the pizza place. I had come up with an idea, and tried different arrangements and styles of letters until I was satisfied. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the absolute worst patch of wood in the whole block. Instead of cutting, it was cracking. Tried making fixes with glue, but things kept getting worse, so in the end I cut it all away and ended up with a blank box. I'll use color/value to deal with it in the final piece.

Having wasted an hour on that last part, I considered putting off the first proof for another day, but I really wanted to see it and the sooner it's printed, the sooner it will be dry enough to color. So I got out the ink and piece of Rives Heavyweight, inked up the block and pulled a proof. The process took more than an hour, mostly because of all that night sky. First proofs always take longer to fully ink, and large areas of solid black are especially difficult. The result can be seen below.

In general I like how it's turned out so far. It reads well, and the shadow effect seems to be working. The contrast is very extreme right now, but that will even out a bit when I start coloring. I will probably make a few minor adjustments before the next printing (tomorrow or Thursday, which still keeps me on pace for the Belmar show in October) , but except for using okawara paper, it won't look much different from this.