I may need new glasses

Having made a start on a wood engraving, I am reminded of how fiendishly difficult and slow-going it is. I’m struggling to see what I’m doing too. After working on the block for an hour this afternoon, I scanned it and blew the image up large on my computer screen – what a mess! Shudder to think what’s going to come out when I finally get to the proofing stage. I’m beginning to regret adding the text – really fiddly. This is a maple block, 75 x 50 mm (approximately 3 x 2 inches).

Back to life

It’s funny how time stands still when you’re ill… time out of time. Life goes on around you and you sort of feel yourself slipping behind; whilst everyone else is hurtling towards December, I’m just shuffling into November. Back to work this week though, and it feels so good to be back in the world again, even though I’ve lost a month.

Sadly, the above frogs are all I’ve managed artistically during that time. I have a hankering to do some wood engraving or linocutting; just can’t seem to settle back into etching at the moment. I have done both before and found it really challenging as it’s a very different way of working and thinking. It doesn’t naturally suit my images which are well-rooted in intaglio techniques so it’ll be good for me to adapt my work accordingly. Interestingly circular as I started this blog to record my progress with wood engraving.