Walkin' Blues part 12

 Time to start pulling proofs of these Robert Johnson prints.  I have three blocks done, which is all I planned to have at this point.   Plus I have my holiday card also cut. I think I have paper to print a proof or two of that, enough for posting here on December 25th, but that will wait for another day.  I'd like to have some images of these Johnson prints to send out soon, and that means printing them first.  My investigations showed that I had enough ink and paper to do them, and today was likely the nicest day of he week.  Cold to be sure, but at least not raining, and that is important when transporting paper and wood.

I decided to go with the Outlaw Black for these, partly because it picks up detail more than any other ink I've ever tried, and partly because I know I have enough to pull the three proofs.  And I started with the first one completed- Walkin' Blues.  Two trips to bring everything in from my car, but I expected that. While my hands were still clean, I tore enough paper for two proofs.  I wanted to do the third as well, but I didn't think I'd have time for that last one today.  

Put on some blues music of course, my live Robert Cray show, written about back on October of 2021. and maybe a few other times as well.  The ink was stiff as usual, probably not helped by spending the night in my cold car.  But not frozen.  Brought the bag with ink and tools on my first trip, and got the paper and other blocks on my second trip.  Used an ink knife to pull out some ink, and worked it a bit on my inking table, to loosen it a bit, as well as warm it up.   Put on some blue painter's tape to cover the areas I didn't want inked, including the text, since I don't want that in the images I send to Nashville.  Selected a 4" hard brayer to roll it up.  Gave the block a good coating, which revealed the image in a way I hadn't seen yet, but nothing happened I wasn't expecting.  Ink went on a little thick in a few spots, but I blotted up the worst of it, and I knew that in hand rubbing the block they wouldn't appear.  And of course, the first proofing is always the most difficult. so I had to re-ink a lot of the image to get a consistent black over everything I wanted.  

As such, it took over an hour to get that first proof done, not including the hand inking of some areas that just didn't take ink the first time.  But in the end I had a decent proof, good enough to let me know what if any changes needed to be made before the next proof.  Here it is:

So far I like what I see.  I can see lightening the face of my walking woman a little, and adjusting that lopsided eye (too much ink) on the standing man mostly behind the bar, but this one seems to be what I had planned.   I'll look it over in the coming days (this ink has to dry a little before I try cutting any more), and make decisions after that.   The second proof should print a little easier.