Animal Spirits part 2

I did find the block with the two cats (postcard project) at home, and I will print another copy of that, but I think I'm going to try to make a new piece as well for next week's Animal Spirits show.  The Birds and Seeds hunting scene may not work for this exhibition, but I think the whiskey/spirits thing could still be fun to play with, so I decided to explore that.  A few days ago I made a quick stop in a local liquor store, walking up and down the aisles with distilled spirits (whiskey, rum, vodka, gin, etc), noting bottles with animals prominent in the label design.  Found several options.  Later I went to the internet to look at those bottles a little more carefully, and selected 4 to use in my image.  I'm bringing back the Wild Turkey again, along with a couple of rums and a tequila (the last one from an actual bottle I had in the basement).  Based on the sketches I made from my sources, yesterday I came up with the paper design above.

I went to the Studio late this morning.  Despite the coming heat wave it was very comfortable in there, so I kept the windows closed to retain the cool.  At first I was thinking of maybe doing this idea as a monotype, but changed my mind.  A lot of the stuff I would use for that was back home (supplies I've been taking to the Belmar workshop), and there was enough detail that I decided it wouldn't be that much faster than doing a woodcut.  (this composition has a lot of black, won't take that long to cut) I used my prepared block to do a sketch.  I had filled in the appropriate values in the paper sketch and decided that I didn't like how it balanced.  After looking at it a while, I decided the solution would be to move the tequila bottle in the front, but rather than remove it, I decided to show it laying down in front of the others.  (this arrangement is actually a sketchbook assignment I give my drawing students on a regular basis)  Above is an early version of this new composition.

After a lunch break I started filling in details on the bottles.  As I spent more time working on the sketch I decided that the perspective on the reclining tequila bottle was not right.  At the angle I had it, it was off the table, and possibly occupying the same space as the rum bottle behind it.  The new version is a little better, though not as accurate as if I had the actual bottle in front of me to draw from.  On the way home I stopped off to do a new sketch of that tequila bottle, this time laying down.  Tomorrow I make the corrections (slight changes to the neck and label will do it) and cut it.