99 Bottles part 4

Brought my new block back to the Studio today.  After looking at it since yesterday, I decided that I liked my general design, so just concentrated on fixing the drawing that I have.  I spent a little time redrawing the two bottles that I had, mostly fixing some perspective issues.  My original plan for the upper right corner was two mussel shells, but I changed that to one shell.  Changed the shape of my piece of "lyric" paper a little, made it look a little more curly.  But mostly it's like I originally planned. I had brought with me today some black drawing ink, so went over all my pencil drawings with brush and ink.

The one thing I wasn't sure about was what to do at the edges.  What I almost always do with woodcuts is to include a simple border line to mark the rectangular edge of the print, but I didn't do that this time, mostly because I don't know what will be needed.  Eventually the image will be converted from my print to use in a video. I tried to do it in the ratio she requested, and I think I got it right, but we'll find out later.  She may have to refocus the images, and I thought that a heavy black line might be a problem if it popped up where not needed.  What I do have is an implied line edge, some in wash in the corners to continue the line made by where the drawings end.  I did use some wash also in shadows, and to mark some values in the drawing. When I start cutting the block, I'll have to chose what kind of marks will be used for these gray areas.

Every piece I do is first composed as a black and white image, and this was no exception.  It may be why right now it looks fairly similar to the recent black and white t-shirt designs. One big difference here is that the final piece is intended to include color, and some of these value shapes will be depicted with color in the actual image.  As the artist I know where they will be, and I'll deal with that  as I cut the block.  By the time it is cut, printed, and colored (probably a few days from now), you'll know it as well.

For no other reason than a song I heard on the car radio on my way to the Studio, today I ended up having a Los Angeles theme for music, items in my Studio library.  First was Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  This album, from around 1999, ended up being their best seller (I bought it myself after much radio play), but they had been around since the 80's, and were well known on the alternative circuit back in my college days.  What may have held them back a little was a love of illegal drugs and all of them had some addiction problems.  The album I have addresses those issues quite a bit.  A lot of musicians have made records about the problems of drugs, some after giving them up, some while still struggling.  Don't know where these guys are at now, but they are still alive, and the album is good.  When that disc ended, I put on a copy of the first two albums by X, released as a single CD, Los Angeles and Wild Gift.  X goes back to the early 80's, but never became huge.  Part of the alternative rock world,  considered an early American punk band, although like many bands from that part of the country, more than a little country-western influence. I first learned of them back in high school, as they had one of first videos on MTV, in an era where there were so few videos being done, having any video could get you onto MTV.  Most active in the 80's, but once in a while they get together and put out something new.  Both bands are known for their connections to the Southern Californian music world, so they have that in common.