The ArtCreel Blog

90 Fly Fishing Prints in 90 Seconds - an ArtCreel YouTube video

2010-01-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

"Four Seasons" by John Koch

2009-12-01T09:31:00.004-07:00

I added the final few colors to the print project I'm working on today,
and finalized the reduction woodcut "Four Seasons."

Earlier this week, I added a dark brown:

Over this, I added a dark green. The brookies finally swim free!

After two days of drying time, I added what became the final color: a
deep, dark blue.

I had originally wanted to print a lighter dark blue, and then finish up
with black. I decided my blue ink was too bright straight out of the
can, and decided to tone it down a bit with orange. I over compensated,
and came up with "nearly" black. I added the rest of the can of blue to
this mess, and was able to come up with a very dark blue. It printed
over the other colors dark enough to call "black", and printed around
the snowflakes light enough to call "blue."

Brilliant!

"Four Seasons" (final)

As with all my prints, there is a certain level of "mortality": because
these are hand done, I bothced a few.

The biggest culprit with this print was keeping a handle on the
registration of all those colors. The darker the colors get, the worse a
mis-alignment shows. With the lighter colors, you can get away with a
mis-aligned print or two, but when printing near-black, even the
slightest shift will show horribly. One of the rejects above was caused
by a stupid, half crazed housefly that landed on my ear as I flipped the
block/paper over to burnish it. With another, I coughed as I laid the
inked block onto the image... after starting with 24 sheets of paper, 18
prints total made it all the way through to the end.

These rejects will be ceremoniously burned later this winter.

John Koch's "Four Seasons" continued...

2009-11-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

I managed to add a few new colors to the print "Four Seasons."

After letting the previous two layers dry completely, I added the third
background color, a pale yellow/tan, to serve as a base to the honey
comb and the fall leaves. Since it was coloring a separate area of the
print, I was able to immediately add a layer of darker pink to the
flowers. I let those colors dry overnight, then followed up with a
stronger yellow/gold to the leaves/honey comb areas.

The final color I added today was a darker pale green. I've come to the
point to where I've pulled out my smallest brayer to selectively ink
individual sections of the block. This helps avoid unnecessary ink build
up.

The previously "ugly" garish easter-egg colors are starting to meld
together and work nicely. A detail shows hows the colors are working
together - the green, being slightly transparent, turns a nice golden
brown over the pink of the flowers. Because its being used in the trout,
it will help anchor the two image objects together.

I'll let these colors dry for a couple days. I've got a lot of carving
to do on the block before I can start thinking about printing it again.

John Koch's Latest Woodcut - "Four Seasons"

2009-11-19T09:15:00.002-07:00

John Koch is our amazing woodcut artist here on ArtCreel. The following is a blog post of his documenting his latest print project. Take a look at the intricate process of making a woodcut print...

It took awhile, but I was finally able to find and transfer the
different images onto the block for the latest woodcut, which I've
entitled (simply enough) "Four Seasons."

My good friend Jon Jacobs contacted me on behalf of Kiap-TU-Wish TU, and
asked if I'd like to donate something for this years banquet. I like
Kiap, and have contributed and benefited from the terrific work they've
done to the streams that I fish. So while I don't put in as much as I
used to (I was the habitat projects coordinator for a number of years,
back before there were kids...), I'm gladly donating another print to
the cause.

I'm hoping it to be this one.

This is one of them projects that you look at, and say to yourself "What
was I thinking?"

I'm pretty sure I can do it, though, if I get to work and not get
distracted by any more Indian summer days that whisper to me about
double guns, setter puppies and grouse woods....

I printed the first two colors of the print, Four Seasons.

After first carving out everything on the block I wanted left
white, I mixed up a batch of ink and spread it out on my inking plate (a
smooth piece of polished granite.) Using a soft rubber roller, or brayer, I spread an even thin coat on
the wooden plate.

To print the plate, I first lay the block onto a sized piece of block
printing paper (mulberry paper made in Thailand):

The plate/paper is then flipped:

I then used a barren, or
hand-press, to burnish the paper onto the plate. The idea is to create
enough pressure on the paper to cause the ink to transfer from the block
into the fibers of the paper:

Satisfied I've covered all the areas with ink, I can then slowly pull
the paper from the plate:

The results are always fun to see:

And so the printing process goes... I've decide to "pull" 24 prints from
this block, so after going through the steps described above 24 times,
it's time to decide on the next color.

I keep a series of print-outs of the images I'm using for this print, my
"color maps." To decide on the next color, I pull one of them out now.

I'll print the lightest pink of the flowers now. Even though it will get
covered up, it will act as a good background color for the two trout,
and for the autumn leaves at the bottom.

But first, I need to clear away everything I want left light green. A
small, sharp hand chisel and mallet make short work of the job:

Once the plate is ready, the inking/pressing/pulling process continues.
This time, the image starts to slowly emerge:

With two layers of ink, I'll leave the prints overnight to dry
completely until I add more.

In truth, the pink is pretty ugly printed over the green right now. It
will stay that way as I add layers of colors, until the darker colors
separate yet unite the disparate blobs of color together into the
finished piece.

ArtCreel.com Launches in October!

2009-10-17T18:24:00.002-06:00

For quite a while I have been thinking about this project. The idea for ArtCreel has been swimming around in my head for about a year and a half. I've been wanting to create a place on the web, separate from my landscapes, to share my angling art with everyone. Sometime between the original idea and January 2009, I had the thought that it would be a lot of fun to build a site where anglers and sporting art enthusiasts could come and find a wide variety of fly fishing art, from a myriad of talented artists. The idea has now been carried out and I'm really excited to announce, ArtCreel.com is the result.

This is a collaborative effort, involving a very patient, helpful wife, a son who's reminded me of the html I've forgotten, some great programmers, and a bunch of wonderful artists who were interested in the vision for ArtCreel and enthusiastic about having their work added to our online shop.

I feel priveledged to have my angling art shown alongside veterans like Peter Corbin and Al Barnes. It's a pleasure to have Joe Tomelleri's prints on ArtCreel as well. Although I've been getting Joe's calendars in my Christmas stocking every year for six years, I didn't know I'd been completely transposing the letters in his last name when I would say it. Joe was patient with those first few emails where I was butchering it (I was spelling it wrong too), and politely let me know I had it skiwampus. Some other stellar artists, each with their own style have also come aboard, including AD Maddox, Derek DeYoung and John Koch. In the coming months we'll be adding a few more as well.

ArtCreel.com is a place to find exactly what you're looking for in a fly fishing print. Our goal is to find and showcase the most fresh and interesting work we can find out there. We also want to make the process of discovering that one piece that really "floats your driftboat", as simple as possible. Whether you're looking for pictures of fish, anglers, rivers, flies, or something in between, we've made a real effort out of trying to simplify the path to that one piece you just have to have.

Some people are intimidated by "art", and don't think they know anything about it. If I could scream out one thing about art collecting to the whole world, it would be to follow the one rule that trumps all the others. That rule is: "Buy what you like"! Just as almost everybody has a preference for music, or movies, they will also have a preference for art. And the more you look, the more you hone in on what you know you like. We want to help you on that path and anticipate that you'll come back to ArtCreel.com often. We hope you'll sign up for a feed here at The ArtCreel Blog, and we'll occasionally update you on...whatever's on our mind if it has to do with fly fishing and art.

Thanks for taking a peek at the blog and the site. This has been the most marathon 7 weeks of my life since I decided to dive in and take on this project. But looking at the results and hearing the early comments, it has been well worth it.

Enjoy!