Making a Living part 11

 

I decided to continue work on my commissioned print, but I was lacking watercolors.  However, I had more I could do, involving ink.  Plus, I wanted to drop off the check for June rent.  The problem was that I was distracted by much that was going on today- a planned trip to the supermarket, the fact that it was the hottest day of the year, things I had to bring with me to work on the print, questions I had to ask, my parents and all their confusion- and I forgot to bring the check with me.  And it was all filled out and everything.  Well, if she wants it early, she is welcome to swing by where I live and get it.  Otherwise, I'll try to bring it up there next time I go, probably in a few days.

Got some other stuff taken care of.  I saw Nichole's car was there so I stopped by the office after dropping off things in my space.  I still just have two students, though I hope for more signing up before things start in a week and a half, so there was info I needed.  I knew from a general email that the building would be closed for the week of July 4th, thus my class would be cancelled that week, and we were having a 7 week schedule that would allow us to have 6 classes and a day off. All well and good, but my class is on a Saturday, so I needed to know when that week actually was.  Turns out I was off on the 2nd, but working on the 9th. That settled, I could get to work.

For music I had brought my book of rock/pop discs with no particular plan, but on the way up the radio played a song from the Smithereens, so I decided to go with my disc of them today.  Home burned from a cassette made from a radio broadcast of a live in studio performance back in 1989.  They played a good show back then, so the disc is still enjoyable three plus decades later.  I have written about the disc and band here a few times, but the first time was back in September, 2019.

One thing I knew from the printings, was that a time or two the hand rubbing of my prints had resulted in a slight tear in the thin Japanese paper.  Luckily I knew how to deal with this- a small patch of the same paper on the back, held in place with a touch of PVA.  Then ink the whole spot again, blot, and no one would ever notice it again.  And as long as I had the ink out, I made a little mat card device to dot a little more ink directly on the print.  I had been thorough in doing the all black sections, but I had noticed a few spots where lines didn't print, or had gaps.  Probably a small chip was missing from the original block (carved over a decade ago), and this may be noticed on its own, but of more concern was coloring.   Those bits of oil based ink do function to contain each color of watercolor.  So far it hadn't been a problem, but it could be when it was time to add the next patch, mixing together against my plans.  The missing pieces were similar on both proofs (the idea that it may be the blocks themselves) so I used my mat card/pen to add ink to both proofs as my eyes spotted the gaps. I think I got all of them.  This does not solve the problem of watercolor soaking through the thin paper, but it does make sure the water doesn't mix on the surface I am working on.  At the same time I noticed that the color touch ups I had done last time were now dry and solid colors.  That's good.  

As it was a very hot day, I decided to just go directly home.  My parents were both there, recovering from the heat as well.  Had lunch then got a delivery of my new water color paints.  Two days early. Well, too hot to go back there today (conditions in my Studio are fine, it's the ride up and back I am avoiding) so experimenting with those will wait for another day.