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My summer vacation is coming to an end. For the past two weeks I have been visiting my dear friend Taeeun Yoo in Seoul, Korea. We spent our time drawing around Seoul, eating great food, working, and exercising together. It has been truly restorative. Today, my last day here, Taeeun conducted a printmaking workshop for me. I am most comfortable working in watercolor or pen, but am always eager to expand my artistic vocabulary.

First, I started with a drawing. Printmaking is wonderful because it forces you to think about shape and color first. Whereas, with other painting techniques, you are thinking about composition and line. My composition is based on my recent summer travels and a story idea I have been thinking about here in Seoul. I will share a few of the steps.

After transferring the drawing, I carved the white areas first. As in watercolor painting, I needed to build my print slowly from light to dark. The seagulls in this piece would remain white.

We mixed a greenish blue sky. This is the lightest color in the print.

Next, I carved away more of the block and printed the trees and ground a middle blue green.

After the sea printed, I added a darker blue green to the landscape and then printed the jacket and head of the boy last. After printing the jacket, we thought it needed to be warmed up a bit. We added a bit more yellow and then decided that we liked the original green.

We printed an edition of three. You can see here that each print varies slightly. For instance, in the first print, we inked a clean, flat blue for the water. In the second print some of the texture of the plate was left behind, making marks that looked more like waves. I really liked that effect, and continued the water lines for the rest of the prints.

Lastly, once the ink dried, I add a few details with a brush.

Voila, my first linoleum block print. Many thanks to Taeeun Yoo for her friendship and instruction today.
Check out her latest book, Here is the Baby, written by  Polly Kanevsky, due out this September with Random House.

by Brandon Schatz

Over at Publisher’s Weekly, they’ve announced that a couple of Brain Wood series will return to print from Dark Horse, as part of a focus on YA content from the company.

In November, a collection of the two New York Four/Five volumes the writer did with artist Ryan Kelly for DC’s  Minx line, an ill-fated imprint that missed its mark more than it hit. Marketed towards the YA market, many of the books attempted to tell stories involving that age group instead of aiming upwards towards the older set. Take a look at a book store, and you’ll see the kids section filled with books telling stories about kids or teens who are just a little bit older than the age being marketed towards. As always, the younger set wants to seem more grown up, and the perfect way to hit the demographic is to aim higher, and market lower.

Keeping in that vein, Dark Horse will also be bringing Demo back into print, a series Wood did with artist Becky Cloonan, first for AiT/PlanetLar, and then for Vertigo.

It’s been a big couple of weeks for Wood, along with the announcement of his involvement in Marvel’s Moon Knight title following Warren Ellis’ departure. These are the first big project announced from Wood since accusations of misogyny were levelled at him late last year, though Dark Horse hints that there is more to come from the writer in the coming months, as The Massive draws to a close, and new series begin.

As noted by my piece earlier this week, I have my own problems with Wood, though as blogger and former DC editor Valerie D’Orzaio notes, it’s important not to confuse feelings on Wood’s actions with a call to action, or a means to an end. I know I’ve enjoyed these books in particular, and would love to see them reach a wider audience.

My gazebo image moved along a lot quicker than I expected today.  This is the piece I'm submitting to the "Art at the Library" show at the Lunenburg MA public library.

Here it is with the colors roughly blocked in...

What happens when four illustrators share a passion for their work and sharing what they know with others? Awesome Horse Studios is Marc Scheff, Cynthia Sheppard, Noah Bradley, and Aaron Miller. They do a weekly Livestream on Saturdays at 2pm EST. Each episode consists of 1-2 critiques of art submitted from the audience, and a demonstration.

You can tune in and chat live with the four horsemen on Saturdays, or watch past episodes at: http://www.awesomehorsestudios.com/watch-now