Blood Draw part 16

 With possibly bad weather predicted for this weekend (probably just rain around here), I decided to go up to the Studio this morning and take care of a few things that needed doing.   One was stopping at the supermarket to pick up a few things, one of which I needed for the meat sauce I planned to make later. The other was going to the Studio to possibly proof my newest completed block, to see what I have.  The block itself and the paper were already up there, and all my printing materials were already in my car, so I didn't have much to pack at home.

I went through the front door with my printmaking go-bag.  Checked that my framed work was still on the wall (it was) and then proceeded downstairs.  First thing I did in my space was take out the ink cans, to let them warm up a bit.  Then while my hands were still clean, I grabbed my box of paper and extracted some of the Rives lightweight I expected to use.  Next step was to put on some music, which turned out to be one of the discs I rescued from my car- Come Dancing with the Kinks, a best of compilation that collected singles from 1977 to 1986, which was past their invasion years, but still a time of relevance for them.  Much to my surprise, I haven't written about this one yet, so here it is.   I also have a disc of all the 60's singles, A & B sides, but that is in storage when I can't get to it right now.   This disc I do have also overlaps a bit with the live album I have a burned copy of, which includes a few verses and lyrics that are not in the studio versions of the songs.

I put out some standard black relief ink and got started rolling out my newest finished block.  Below is what it looked like:

I do need to get another roll of painter's tape, so for now I just covered bits of accidental ink, rather than covering whole sides as I sometimes do.  Good enough for what I needed to do today.  I rolled out ink over the whole block and got my first look at what I had created.  I saw issues, but liked it enough to pull a copy on paper and really see what I had.

So I did that, using a sheet of Rives Lightweight, a paper I have used for proofing and sometimes for editions.  The first proof is always the most difficult, as the wood tends to absorb some of the ink, but this one wasn't too bad.  Still, I had to re-ink some sections to get them properly saturated.  I was just about done when I saw the paper shift on the block, and I know from experience that it is pretty much impossible to put it back right, so that was the end of the proof.  I fixed a few spots by dabbing with ink, then hung it on my wall mounted piece of homosote so I could get a good look at the proof.  What I saw can be seen below:

The reason one takes a first proof is to see what needs to be fixed, and it didn't take me long to figure it out.  Most of the figure of myself seems fine, though I will look a the above photo more closely to see what is there.  I can see bigger problems with the other figure- that left side eye is a problem, but I may be able to fix that with some more cutting.  Same for that left hand on her.  While the right hand seems well defined, that left one doesn't.  It's also the first opportunity I have had to see it in this orientation.  But I'll let the block dry thoroughly first.  I left the proof hanging on the wall to dry.  And if the weather keeps me rom getting there the next few days, so be it. 

As I was cleaning up, Molly showed up.  She was in a hurry, gathering a piece of papier mache (?) and getting ready for a Zoom call in the cafeteria.  She did tell me that the rent was being raised on our space for 2024, which didn't surprise me too much.  She gave me a number, but said no problem waiting until next month to get it all settled, as I already gave her the January check with the old rate.   Then she was gone.  I did stop by the office on my way out to see about this rent increase, and it is real, but the number I had written down was not correct.   Was I at fault, or did she give me the wrong number (I'll assume an honest mistake)?  Didn't matter, only a few dollars anyway, and I have most of month to get her the next check.

By the way, the meat sauce smelled delicious, but I won't be eating it until later.