March 16, 2010

229: Subterranean Homesick Owls

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Illustration Friday's current theme of subterranean – very specific, which I like – allows an opportunity to display wares from a weekend spree of woodcut-based monoprints.

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In January, a friend offered me a couple of small blocks of particle-board and some cutting tools to try my hand at carving, something I hadn't really done since high school (on linoleum, I think we all did this in high school). After a few sessions of trial and error, I carved myself a nice little cut of a burrowing owl (above).

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Actual printing went down on Sunday; about a dozen or so decent copies (above) run off on a small but effective homemade press at my friend's place. These I am quite proud of.

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For Illustration Friday's purposes I scanned one of the black-ink prints (above) to further the piece digitally, though I hoped to retain the print's sense of hand-craftedness. Burrowing owls are unique among the owl set for nesting in abandoned prairie-dog dens, among other subterranean abodes, and the stark, confined nature of these prints suited an idea I had in mind. Where the concept – and this write-up – takes an odd turn is in the piece's source of inspiration. Subterranean, for some reason or another, made me recall the mining sequence about midway through Dance, a two-minute animated National Film Board vignette that used to fill space on CBC when I was a kid (any Canadian worth his toque should recognize this tune).

Click here, to view the illustration larger (and on black).

8 comments:

lew! said...

Very nice Jeope. The illustration transferred really well to the prints. Very nice.

devon spec said...

omg woot woot! i get the green one! :D i'll have 2 jeope originals hanging in my hall. :)

Sally Taylor said...

Very nice, I particularly like the original prints!

Ariel Gordon said...

Most excellent!

kaepe said...

i love the block prints jeope - not just because i share your love of owls.
i do find the subterranean crew a little disturbing though...

Mary said...

LOVE these! Last time I tried to block print, I added text and i was so mad at myself that I didn't reverse it, so my prints were backwards. I'm a knucklehead.

ksavage said...

Sweet carvings!

milo said...

Love these!!!