Not really idle

Florida Green Anole--proof state on Japanese paper

I knew after I had proofed the Maple seed/leaf prints that I was going to try and print a small edition; but since I expect a higher than usual throw-away rate...I didn't really want to use my $20-30./sheet papers.
My home-sized paper at Euro 7.50/sheet isn't too bad (I'm excluding my extra labor/size costs) but at my last attempt I sized just 4 full sheets and I've used 2 of those on my experiments so I need more paper if I'm going to go that route.

So, I went and sized an additional 4 sheets of hosokawa elfenbein and 5 sheets of plain white hosho and as they're now dry but need to rest/"age" a bit I have a bit of a forced pause.

So, I took out my lizard blocks; As I had registration issues that I wss fixing "by eye", I meticulously reproofed those slowly block by block and now with my newly acquired kento-plug/shifting skills slowly added small shims to the red block, the yellow block (twice as the first time I moved it the wrong way) and one of the green blocks.
A little bit of practice helps as I noticed that when I started to see a slight off-register bit I was quick to just fix it and not just ignore it as I had in the past (afraid I'd make it worse by messing with the existing kento.).
So I added spacers/proofed one/ trimmed it back a hair/printed another and in the end finished 11 good prints (5 on Magnani Incisioni, two on Fabriano Artistico and 4 on my end pieces of the above-mentioned Japanese paper.).
So, I'm ready to go and paper is cut.
I hope to print 100? copies or so--but not tomorrow.
I'm off for a few days of holiday-- but when I come back--next week,
It's lizard-printing time.

Lizard color proofs

I managed to print a few more color proofs of my lizard print.
The red and yellow blocks are indeed a bit out of register; but as there is a bit of play to the color blocks--I have several overlaps--by just moving them over a smidgeon (about 2mm) to the side and 1mm up on one corner they fill in pretty decently and I think I'll have a go at a proper print run this week if I can carve out some time instead of recarving the blocks.

The lizard is too blue-green (it is a really vibrant yellow-green in real life) and I need to distinguish the lizard from the background a bit more (there are separate blocks for this so it should be easy).

Still a small amount of clean up to do though. Some stray edges,unwanted embossing, spotting, low spots and filled-in gaps to tidy up with the chisels before printing the first batch.
The pebbly skin was lost a bit from overprinting; I'll try to open up the holes a bit more and print it last to give the skin visible and raised texture. As it is now a bit too subtle.

Lizard Skin

Two quick shots of the proofs of yesterday's block.

The block prints pretty well; I used just a bit of Payne's Gray and Pthalo blue and paste to test the holes.
Registration was on for this block and the keyblock.

No more shots of this print for a while:
Two of my color blocks are off-register by about 1/8th of an inch.
Too much to be just cutting error on a small print and I was VERY meticulous to cut all the Kentos exactly the same. I think wood expansion is the culprit as I pasted two of the hanshitas down two weeks later than the first two.
I'll try to adjust the kentos and trim first but I may have to recarve two blocks.

This looks pretty good like this but it's pretty far from the intended print.
This texture would be more appropriate for a Gila monster or Beaded lizard and less so for the small, green anole I have in mind.
I'll have to see if the other blocks can be salvaged and suspect/hope the final work will be quite different.

Lizards

I drew these sketches from memory before going to the internet to find photos to reference and before I had decided to sprint over to Florida for a brief family visit.
I did find and take this photo of the lizard in question, the green anole,
anolis carolinensis and was happy to see it again in it's natural habitat.

The multicolored dewlap, the flap of skin that the male can extend to attract females and dissuade other males from entering his territory is a prominent feature among most anoles and can range from pale, creamy white to bright orange/red.

Here is a close-up of the printed keyblock (won't be this color but I had a tube at hand while I was proofing) before color blocks have been cut.

I'm using Italian Cherry for my blocks this time around and it is good to be cutting a nice hardwood again. Cherry polishes to an almost glasslike shine and while this is not very densely grained and is a bit coarse, it is taking pretty good detail and resists chipping or splintering.

Fieldwork

I had a brief trip back to South Florida getting out of Europe before the terrible cold snap of last week and returning just in time for a new one.
It is always odd getting off an airplane from a cold climate into the nearly tropical damp air of Florida. I fled Florida when I was old enough to legally do so and I hate what much of the completely uncontrolled growth and development have done to the natural environment but I always loved the natural side; the Everglades National Park is a truly wondrous place and I find in even the small corners often a sliver of wild left in a highway median or storm drainage all sorts of animals/plants and insects that refuse to be developed out of existence.

Family health issues took up most of my time but my mother lives in a community that developed around the existing wetlands, interspersing houses and golf courses between the ponds and creeks, grasslands and dry, piny scrub. I could sit on the back patio and watch cranes, grebes, ducks, egrets and ibis and many other water birds as well as lizards, frogs,alligators, snakes, armadillos and even a fast moving bobcat during the few days I was there.
And at night, the powerful smell of night-blooming jasmine and the incessant chirping of small frogs, hissing of crickets and occasional deep bass calling of the bull frogs kept me up and soothed away the feelings of aging and mortality that seem to accompany me more frequently now that I am almost 50 and near ones are falling ill or just falling down.

I was looking for one old friend in particular.
When I was young my brother, sister and I would regularly try to find and catch lizards and frogs.
My favorite was the Florida Chameleon--really an anole, a lizard capable of turning from bright green to brown.
They are reportedly much fewer now, outcompeted by the introduced and more aggressive brown anole and the ferocious appetites of the now numerous escaped green and red iguanas.

But I eventually found what I was looking for. If you stop and look and wait, the shy things will eventually move and can be seen; and even the quiet, unmoving things seem to slip out of their cloak of invisibility.

Home again, a suitcase full of tortillas, spices, baking and cooking necessities and a few woodblocks and printmaking supplies and a backlog of mail, prints to finish and the sound of frogs still in my ears.