Mermaid Piece part 16

This week my cold seems to have subsided, and I felt well enough to go back to work in my part time job, and all along I've been teaching my classes.  And I've been trying to get some rest when I can.  The result is that I haven't been in the Studio for over a week.  But I figure my rubbing style proofs must be dry by now, so I'd spend part of my Saturday doing some artwork.  Got to the building around 2:30 pm and went inside, only to find one little problem.

The door to the stairway that leads down to the basement had a new doorknob with a lock in it, one that would require a key.  In the decade or so that I've had a space in this building there has never been a lock on this door.  And it was locked. And I did not have the key.

Luckily I know the building quite well and know other ways to get to the basement.  Chose the elevator, got to my space, tossed my backpack onto my table.  My mission today was to finish the prints from the mermaid block.  As I expected, the ink was dry on the proofs so it was safe to proceed.  Had to take the roundabout route back to my car and got my bag of supplies related to this piece, and then my long path back to the basement.

Wanted to work on two pieces of the mermaid today- the final layer of her hair, and another layer on her tail.  For the hair I mixed yellow and white, spread it thin, used a hard brayer, and rolled it out.  Over the layers of darker ink from previous sessions, textures were produced.  The remaining lemon yellow ink was incorporated into a new blue ink (with a squeeze of pthalo blue) to make a new layer for the tail, and that was rolled on.  Did this with both proofs that I had.  Results can be seen above and below.

And I think that's all the ink I will be putting on these rubbing proofs.  Still don't have a plan for these things yet, but I got them.  Left them in the Studio to dry.  The process has left some color on the block itself, ink that worked through the thin paper.  No problem, as I will be coloring the block eventually.  The block in its current state can be seen below.

I washed the tools and palette and gathered my stuff.  I picked up my backpack and there on the table was a shiny new key.  Guessed it had been left for me for the new lock.  Once again took my circuitous route to my car to drop off my stuff, then back inside to try the new key.  And it was indeed the key to this new lock.  Put it on my ring.  I don't know if they plan to have this door be locked at all times and there was no one around today to ask.  The current state seems to be a fire code violation.  But I was able to leave the basement, so I'll leave the art to dry for a while, and start thinking about what my next project will be.