Saturday, March 7, 2015

Two Colour Eider Duck Linocut

Eider duck linocut
Eider duck linocut
I've just finished printing an edition of eider ducks linocut prints.  They were inspired by the eider ducks we saw while on holiday in Gardenstown.
Gardenstown is a beautiful village up in the North East of Scotland.  It's a fishing village built right on the sea.  It's a perfect place to visit as a family as it's almost car free and the beach is practically at your front door!  Lots of seabirds live there, including a population of eider ducks.

Gardenstown is built right on the sea!
Gardenstown is built right on the sea
Gardenstown harbour
Gardenstown harbour






gannet colony
There is a large gannet colony nearby
MacDuff Aquarium
At the MacDuff Aquarium





I decided to produce a simple two colour linocut.  I love the technical challenge of reducing what you would like to portray down to 4 colours: the colour of the paper; the 2 colours of each separate linocut panel; and the 4th colour where the panels overlap.

First panel inked up in black
First panel inked up in black



 1.  Here you can see my first linocut panel, which is printed up in black.









Second panel inked up in blue
Second panel inked up in blue




2.  I made a second panel, which I printed up in a grey-green blue.  You can see clearly in this photograph the overlap of colours, where there are ripples on the water.






3.  The edition of eider ducks prints drying off on the rack.  They are printed on to very beautiful but very fragile rice paper, so you need to stretch them out carefully.

Eider duck prints drying off
Eider duck prints drying off












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