A Collaborative Experiment

We are in a new month now, which got me thinking about the next critique group meeting.  Haven't seen Molly in a while, but even if I had I doubt we would have tried for this past week.  I generally stay away from trying to lure people in too close to a holiday.  But next week may work.  So when I got up to the Studio this afternoon I gave her a call.  She's going to look at her schedule, maybe talk to a few regulars.  Perhaps we can try for the middle of next week.  The sooner she gets back to me, the sooner I can get the word out.

Meanwhile I need to think about what I would be showing.  Last month I was encouraged to take home something that someone else had started.  Perhaps two other people.  I do know that group regular Tim was part of this.  Not only did he sign it (lower left corner), but he loves birds and that one in the corner is his style.  No time to start anything new, but in a week I could add something to this and pass it on to the next person.

I decided to continue with the bird idea.   Figured the easiest thing would be to print some kind of already cut bird image from a block in the Studio.  I vaguely remembered doing something with a whole bunch of sea gulls, probably a boardwalk block.  I looked at all those blocks but saw only a few gulls.  Then I remembered the gulls were for a different boardwalk image- the area at the base of my tower of art.  Some of that group should fit into the space I had.  Took a quick rubbing, cut out those pieces to test layout strategies, inked it, put down some masking tape to block off some areas from printing, and then slapped the paper down on top and printed.

Came out a bit messier than I had hoped.  The paper is a very heavyweight cold press (textured) watercolor paper, not conducive to hand printing.  Still, the inclusion of multiple styles in the one piece works in my favor.  Let the ink dry a few days, then I can go in with a pen and clean up the lines and more watercolors.  Hopefully when I'm done it will all make some kind of sense.