so I'm slackin' a little bit...

But I have a good excuse. I've been working on an ABC book for about a year now. I painted 26 pictures for the book, scanned them, photographed them, had them printed into a book format, photoshopped them because the book looked awful, tried another printer, re-photoshopped them, and then gave up. Then, in at 3am one day, I awoke with the brilliant idea of converting all the paintings to linoleum block prints. So, I practiced cutting a few blocks, started drawing the pictures, practiced cutting some more blocks, tried different ways to transfer the pictures, found a way that worked, so I scanned the drawings and started transferring then cutting the 26 blocks. I have 19 blocks in the works currently (the art store didn't have 26 in stock, so I have to go back). But low and behold version 2.0 of the blocks works! So far I'm happy with the format. So happy in fact that I am a willing to share them with you. Here is "I is for Icecream" and "H is for Houses" - I'll let you figure out which is which.

Linoleum Block Prints

So, I've been tossing around the idea of doing lino block prints of Norm. This is one of the 1st that I've done. I'm enojoying the process and the freshness of the outcome. Granted, I still have a lot to learn.

And learn I shall. I am embarking on a project to do an ABC book in lino block prints done by Kindergarteners. They will draw the designs - 1 block for each letter. A team of 4 parents will cut the blocks, then the kids will help us print the accordion style book. It should be fun, but I never imagined how much planning goes into something like this. For example, how to do you explain positive/negative to a 5 year old? Or try to get a "scribbler" to draw big enough shapes that an adult can interpret into an easy to carve block - granted you can do fine detail on lino blocks, but when there are 26 to cut...

Fingers crossed, all will go smoothly with the book and I will pick up a few tips & tricks. Then I can embark on my own book adventure.