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.

Scales (using a rotary drill for woodblock)

Well, I had been looking for an excuse to use this tool.

My neighbor is a dentist, and when I asked to borrow a drill to put up some picture frames, he apologized saying all he has at home is an old foot-controlled, rotary dental drill; "like a Dremel", he added.

Oh, really? I asked.
I never did get around to hanging the mirror but I've had his drill with a small box of assorted bits for two weeks now (I promised to bring it back soon).

I like carving by hand but there are some jobs that I am still too inexpert to do well or quickly.

When I decided to do a lizard the idea of the scales presented itself. Either to carve individual scales or what I've done here,
Remove the scales with a rotary tool.

There is a base color for the lizard carved on another block (it will be yellow-green) and this block will be printed over it with a darker shade creating the shadows and spaces between the scales. Or, that's the idea.

Washing off the hanshita/drawing will cause the wood to swell and some of this detail will vanish and a trial proof will tell me if I need to reopen or remove some areas.
Proofing and printing will tell.

This may be another case where the block is just way more interesting than the resulting print.

It's a noisy tool and spits little bits of wood/dust pretty much everywhere. I was using a very small, conical dental burr and it made pretty small holes but it is not a tool I would enjoy to use very often.

(P.S. sorry about the yellow photos--the flash made all the detail vanish so I did it with just the late afternoon light and the desk lamp--causing the yellow cast.)