I've been off dancing this weekend and am on my way to a week in the Netherlands with my parents, so there will be sketches later. In the meantime, I haven't posted this yet. It's the first color proof of a new print, another one of my favorite tree in my local park.

I've done some more carving and am two days into a second proof. It has to dry overnight between each color. I'll pull the final round of the second proof when I get home and see how it's looking.

Here it is with the original ink and watercolor sketch and all three blocks.

I started a new print last night while I listened to the baseball game. Good to be back home and working. And yes, it's my same tree I can't stop drawing. I did this sketch back in January and had no real plan for it. I just saw the moon and wanted to draw. I'm grateful to the Memphis Urban Sketchers for getting me more in the habit of ongoing drawing. It's nice to have that much material to leaf back through and be inspired by.

Here's a new block I've almost got done this week. It's a scene from Country Workshops, a grove of trees I've painted several times over the years. I intend this print for my fall show at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

This is the first color proof, but it's close to what I want. I'll do a little clean up carving, and I think I'll hand paint a blue sky, just to see what that would look like. I'm really trying to keep a lot of these prints to just two blocks, though. It's a huge addition of labor each time you have to mix ink, hand roll each one, line it up, and print it on the proof press. Two times is way better than three, but the blue sky in the original sketch is pretty integral, so I'm going to try it.

Here's the underneath block. I roll the green and yellow at the same time, using one block there instead of separate printings.

Here are the two blocks together along with the original sketch.

I'm trying my very first print on black paper. A friend with a great eye for art nudged me in that direction a while ago, wondering what a different block of mine would look like printed in white ink on black paper.

I didn't try that one, but the comment planted a seed, and I started this block soon after. This is only the first proof. I did some more refining this evening.

Below is the green block, printed first.

Then I had to carve the pattern block, which took a bit longer than I first thought. Sometimes the simpler designs leave more scope for pattern as you go, which can take longer than a more detailed drawing to start with.

I'm still trying to get the ink lightness just right on the dark paper. More proofs to come.