Carving Out a Little Holiday Cheer

Happy holidays! This season I wanted to get back to creating some hands-on traditional art. First let me say I haven’t done print making since high school, and even then, I’ve never done something with more than a one color ink pass. For this art though, I went all in and decided to try for three colors!

Throughout the process, I learned a ton. There is definitely an art to printmaking that I hadn’t full appreciated prior to this. It takes patience, planning and without a doubt, lots of experience under your belt. I started this project on my own but had the opportunity to team up with my brother Eric to see it through. Eric is a fine artist with a tremendous amount of talent and expertise that was invaluable, not to mention I can never pass up the opportunity to work beside him when creating art. It was a truly a lot of fun to do this with him over the holidays!

Each print is uniquely different, not a single pair are alike. Originally I was striving for perfection, then I realized the beauty in each print having their own smudges, splatters and splotches.

I hope you enjoy the artwork as much as I did creating it and have a happy holiday season!

Concepting

  • Initial Sketch

    The first step was simply coming up with an idea and beginning with a rough sketch.

  • Early Rendering

    From the initial sketch, I rendered some color blocking to understand each plate separation.

  • Final Print

    Each color builds on to the next with each plate pressing creating the final art.

Production

  • Background Plate

    The first plate colorizes the background. The objects that are white or yellow need to be avoided here.

  • Light and Lantern Plate

    The lanterns were yellow, so if they overprint on blue, you’ll end up with green. Registering these plates so they align was tricky.

  • Detailed Black Plate

    The final black plate is what will add detail, depth and typography to the overall print bringing it all together.