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.

More Maple Proofs

The troublesome block that was printing the seams remained troublesome so I bit the bullet and recarved the background on a spare shina block.
The new block is now registering better than it's predecessor,
but with the multiple printings--especially large color fields on a 14" x 14" square--registration is still off enough to be discouraging.

I've underprinted with a yellow beta-block since if the later leaf and twig blocks are off just a bit it will show through and give the effect of back-lighting.
There is enough play that overlap will/should just heighten the edge contrast.
But in too-many places it still just looks off-register.

The real problem remaining is the little rectangular chop cut into 3 blocks that ended up on the far corner and isn't reliably in-register drop-after-drop.

But the funniest thing I discovered it that if you really want a deep, dark, midnight blue.....try spilling a bottle of Prussian Blue pigment dispersion on your block.
(The dark versions are all the fruits of that spill....I had been tinting the background with glazes of blue trying to tweak it toward grey-green until the big spill.)

Below are two of the better versions. The dark one is on Magnani Incisioni and the tan one on my home-sized Hosokawa washi (39g/m2).

I was pretty happy I was able to print on it. It's definitely thinner than I'm used to but it's strong and now that it's sized it took 10 impressions without any problems in the proofing stage. I used a carry sheet--a similar sized sheet of mylar to help stiffen it enough to allow me to register it into the kento and lay it down. The paper's thinness is also an unexpected boon; I can see through it well enough to be able to rub with the baren just where I want to so
printing errors are less (the heavier papers aren't see-through and I have to press harder.)
There is still lots to do though.
The prints up-close are all rejects: there are too many ink splotches, misregistered edges, some smears, etc.
The leaves looked pretty saturated until I printed the background colors and now are clearly too pale and pink instead of vibrant red and orange.
I have by now at least 20 proofs but none that are good enough to call "finished".
I'm not sure how much time, energy, or paper I want to devote to this idea.
Still, I will give it another go with a dedicated try with at least 10-15 sheets of decent paper once I clean up the blocks. I'm hoping that if I know I'm printing "For Real" and not just proofs I'll get a better ratio of unmarred copies.

"Hey, can you move over just a little bit?" --Adjusting a kento.

This is the first time I've done this so I post these photos and my comments as an invitation to any who have done this before, often or just better to comment below on improvements.

As I mentioned in my last post I was pretty precise in cutting my original kentos.
I either use a Kento-nomi ( a flat chisel used just for this purpose) or the hangi-toh being carefult to split the black line that is my guide.
But sometimes, despite being careful, or if the wood shifts or expands more on one block than another one has to adjust the kento to allow for this shift.

This is the problem.

I'll let the following photos explain things but here is a summary.
A flat chisel is used to cut a groove next to the existing kento.
Using a slender, wedge of hardwood, tap it in with a hammer. Cut it flush with the kento and get back to printing.
As this was the first time I try this. I cut a sample kento on the edge of the block to try it out.

Above is the drawn "test kento" and the registration guides I cut from them.
Below are some cherry wedges I split off from a small block with a wood chisel and then sanded into a wedge shape with a sanding block and some 220grit paper.
(Ignore the Aisuki chisel which is just there for scale).

These were tapped in with a hammer.

Next was to trim it flush without having it pop out.

Here are the finished corner and edge kentos with the trimmed plugs.

Testing the kentos:

These are a bit ragged as my cherry blocks are a little thin (1cm thick) and the groove I cut next to the existing kento with a chisel seemed a bit too shallow. Tapping in the wedges was harder than I thought and some of them split or broke and had to be resanded and replaced.
Cutting them off also was harder than it should have been. Several popped out from the leverage of cutting them.
But if imperfect these do what they are supposed to.
As you can see from the last photos, they hold the paper edge a good 1-2mm off the old edge and should fix the problem.

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.

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.)

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.