September Prompt - WIP

[theprairiefox]

Concept: A little girl brings her pet to obedience school. Unfortunately, it is a squirrel! We catch her right before the hilarity ensues.

I did about 10 thumbs and this came out the strongest. I have done a simple line and value study. I will be finishing as a 4 color woodcut.

I wanted to get any feedback on the following:

• Basic Idea
• Layout and Design
• Reading values
• Tangents and the like

Thanks for the input.

[demotlj]

@theprairiefox I love the idea and had to laugh thinking about what my dog would do if that happened! One thing I noticed is that the line of the fence splits the picture in two. Can you break the line somehow? Maybe flip the girl and put one of her pigtails across the fence line?

[theprairiefox]

@demotlj I see what you mean. I agree that the line should be broken up. I am hesitant to switch the direction of the girl as she would be facing out of the picture then (sort of). But I will play with some other ideas and see what I can do.

[theprairiefox]

I did an update... took some advice @chrisaakins provided on another thread and made sure my lines weren't following the frame.

Let me know what you think @demotlj this breaks up with line as well. With some overlapping in the back.

[demotlj]

@theprairiefox. I think this is much better — much more dynamic with the angled lines and the fence overlapping the dog’s nose really helps a lot too.

[KathrynAdebayo]

I love the idea.

[Shara Mills]

Definitely stronger!

The fence is still dividing the composition in half pretty strongly. What if you shifted the fence to the right so it was more on the 2/3 line rather than the half? You could even push the scale a bit too. The foreground girl and squirrel could be bigger and closer and the dogs and class going on could be smaller and farther away to still fit in the remaining 1/3 if you shift the fence.

I just went through and watched the first few critique arena videos and compositions cut in half were picked out a lot.

The concept is so cute!! Love that it's not the school we all thought of. Very creative.

[theprairiefox]

@Shara-Mills yeah, I will play with moving it to the right further and see how it plays out.

Thanks again for the feedback to everyone.

[braden H]

@theprairiefox I love this idea!

Part of me wants to see the squirrel frantic and trying to get away, but most of me really likes that the squirrel is rather well behaved

[theprairiefox]

@Braden-Hallett some of my thumbnails had the dogs chasing the squirrel... I explored the after as well. I just couldn't get one to work where you could really tell what was happening due to the size difference between the squirrel and dogs.

[braden H]

@theprairiefox The anticipation is what makes this piece. You chose the right moment for sure

[theprairiefox]

Many of you know most of my final work is some sort of printmaking. Well, this one will be created using Glowforged woodcuts (3 colors & one black).

Well, I know some of you like to follow my crazy... so I will post each plate as they are printed.

Here is the brown plate!

[braden H]

@theprairiefox I admire your dedication. I would be tearing my hair out with all those different plates

[theprairiefox]

@Braden-Hallett well my hair is all gone (thanks to my children) so it makes the pulling less effective.

[theprairiefox]

Plate #2... took some playing with the ink to get it to work as I wanted but it turned out okay.

I am testing a new registration method for my plate and paper and that is working great. Only missed registration on 1 out of 12 prints! My previous piece had a lot more registration problems. Ah, the trials of printmaking...

[TwiggyT]

@theprairiefox I really like your concept and your updated image. And oh my goodness, I'm so glad you're showing your process. Woodcuts are so awesome!

[theprairiefox]

@TwiggyT Thanks, it is fun to see the image come together in the end. I never know exactly how it will play when printed.

Here is the 3rd plate... orange. Only one more to go!

[theprairiefox]

Now I just have to wait for the black to dry so I can scan the final. Pretty pleased with how it came out.

Thank you all for your help.

[SFischer]

@theprairiefox Nice!

[theprairiefox]

@SFischer thanks, it finally dried enough to scan. Put it up on the main thread. But here is what I submitted.