A long overdue print

This weekend I finally found time to print a bit at home (as opposed to the printing I'm doing at school lately). This particular print is long overdue, as I started working on it when I was last in Austria, which was in September. The print came out of a joint printing / art session with my friend Karin (see link to her blog on the side).

During that session I cut one plate completely and the other one mostly and pulled one test print of one of the plates. But I was never really happy with the result. My idea was to cut both plates in Lauan wood which has a very strong grain as is clearly visible in this print. This can be beautiful but - well - it's really a LOT of grain. And I wanted to see what it would look like if both plates are done on such strong grain. Well, to be honest with you - I think it would have been better if one of the plates (background most likely) would have been on a smoother wood - it would make the print look a bit more solid. But what is done is done. It's still an interesting piece. But back to the story. Originally this print had a "rainbow print" background (sometimes also called "iris print" I think. It's a color transition, in this case from yellow to red) and it also had a large sun in it. Eventually I decided to get rid of the sun and I also did some more cutting behind the tree trunks (before there was almost no cutting in the background plate in that area so I would have a solidly printing background for the iris print. Also the first version had no clouds (as so often, when there are clouds, the sun goes away, right? ;) ) Instead of bright yellow and red, this version is printed in yellow ocher and indian red on off-white paper.