States and Proofs

Well it was a successful weekend in the studio with all of the JF bookplates printed and drying. That gives me a week to trim them and make a case. This client has asked for original sketches and examples of all the states as part of the deal and so I will also make a folder for those.

Do you know about states? Then I have finished engraving a woodblock, I ink it and take a proof from it. This is State I. This is a difficult moment because sometimes - its only happened a couple of times - I know that I have to start again. After twenty hours of work that can be a bit of a blow.

Usually, the image is a bit "flat" and I have to adjust the light by making more cuts, which will show up white in the print. There are usually areas where I need to clear away wood that is printing where I need an area of white. I work on the block and take another proof. This is State II. I keep on repeating this until I am completely satisfied. At the moment, I am working through about seven or eight states before I am happy. At that point, the block is finshed and I can set it aside until I am ready to print the edition. More about that another time.

I took proofs form the two small spots for Venus and Adonis. One is so nearly there and the other is looking good but will need a few more states before it is finished. I selected a woodblock for the last two spots and I hope to get them engraved and finished this week so that I can send the four finished spots off to Canada where they will be used to illustrate a limited, hand printed edition.

Still on V&A, I spent much of Saturday going through figure and costume references. Later today, I will sit down with pen and paper and draw out the latest versions of these larger illustrations. I hope that this will go fairly smoothly as I need to start engraving these if they are going to be done before California beckons. I received three of these larger blocks from Chris - good work - I'm looking forwads to using them.

I will figure out a way to show some illustrations on these pages so that you can see what I'm doing at the moment. Right now, its time to draw.