Blood Draw part 17

 A pretty nice day today, probably the best one of the week.  (we had a big rain and wind storm a few days ago, and are expecting more bad weather this coming weekend)  In any case, it seemed a good day to take care of some errands, and stop at the Studio to do some work.   So that's what I did.  I had brought some discs with me, including the one I left home the other day.  However, on the way there I heard a song on the radio, a faithful acoustic cover of Neil Young's Old Man, and it put me in the mood to listen to some more acoustic Neil Young, so I called an audible and listened to that disc that I left there in the Studio.  (by the way, that cover was by Beck, if the back listing by the dj was accurate)  One of the discs I left there was a live acoustic show from Young (I think a gift from Siblik, and Molly is a fan of the artist) done in Massey Hall in 1971, and it has that song.  There is a more detailed description of the album on this blog back in September of 2021.

I had also brought a bag of good tools from home, and my container of orange gritty soap from the car.  Both were for use on the Blood Draw block, now proofed a week ago, and I judged dry enough to work on.  The soap was in case I got some residual ink on my hands from new cutting, as this type of stuff does a good job on inky hands.  (used to bring in that type of thing when my students were doing their collagraphs and once had a student ask me if I made it myself, but I told the truth, that I probably got it in the automotive section of the local Kmart, or in a Home Depot)  I had an idea of some things I wanted to recut following the proof last week, and I'd look at the proof a get more ideas.

I got to my space, popped on the Young disc, and got to work.  I had also brought my brand new carving tool, but that is actually a finer round gouge than any I had, and what I needed was something wider.   I was planning to work on two areas- lighten the right side hand of the nurse, and fix her right side eye.  I did those.  Inspection of the proof and block convinced me to do one other thing today- use a v-gouge to cut a fine line in the needle part of her blood drawing tool.   Nothing else turned up in my first inspection, and I'll save cleaning up stray marks on the rest of the block for another time.  Didn't bother with proofing the new version, but I did take this photo showing changes to the block:

The pumice and orange soap proved to be enough to get the tinge of ink off my hands, and I put away everything quickly.  Next time I am there, I'll have to decide what block I am going to work on.  This one is definitely better, but I might be able to make it better still before I print it again.