Long Series #1291.

#1291

Long Series #1288.

#1288

Long Series #1287.

#1287

Undercover words.

Dictionary and stamp.

Lately one of my favourite things to work on are pages from old dictionarys. I glue them together to make larger sheets and then I begin to build a layer of images on top. Here I’m using a rubber stamp to print a vine pattern over the surface. When I have the large sheet glued together I will glue a layer of transparent paper over the top of the large sheet. I will begin collecting marks on the surface of this new sheet. Eventually I will cut the sheet into a group of 12×12  sheets that will eventually become part of my Long Series paintings.

Making rubber stamps with erasers.

Fresh erasers.

I’ve been trying to expand my mark making stock by including rubber stamps. The problem is that a lot of rubber stamps tend to be cute, and expensive. So with a few sharp tools, and a few cheap erasers I decided to explore my limited print making skills. Lukily I have a very nice set of lino cutting tools that I bought several years ago from Daniel Smith Art Supplies.

Cut eraser.

I’ve  cut a simple skull design. Simple and crude to be truthful.

Inked.

I use an archival quality ink pad to ink my stamp. The ink is a nice rich black.

Skulls.

I like the rough quality the stamp makes.

Result.

I’ve stamped the image onto an unfinished Long Series sheet. My daughter tells me the result is a bit creepy. I’ve a lot of work still to do on this painting, and I have no idea if I’ll like the end result but I enjoyed the experiment. I’ll post the finished painting when it’s completed.