Sunday, February 28, 2016

(almost) Unicorns!

A magical week in Artlandia!  Have you ever wondered what Durer's The Small Horse would look like at unicorn-scale - because I have ;) 

Albrecht Durer, The Small Horse, 1505
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer#
/media/File:Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_
The_Small_Horse_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

 I based "unicorn-scale" on tapestries I saw during my trip to the Cloisters two weeks ago.

I started by carving a full 9 x 12" block. Then I printed it, photographed it, divided it up and printed it onto individual sheets of paper then reassembled (whew!)

The re-assembled version is a good model of the final scale (about 4.5 ft long). I used the model to practice where to divide the image and put the seams so that I can transfer it onto polyester lithography plates and print it on a press in the near future.

9 x 12" relief print












While I like the way the body looks - I'd like to carve the head and the hooves (since unicorns have cloven hooves ;) ) in greater detail on separate blocks and the horn will also have it's own block. Much more to come, but I feel it's a good start, and it's exciting to see the model on the wall after it's been in my head for so long [thumbs up!].

start of the block for the head - going for a slightly less horse-y and more okapi-ish look.

I'm working in a gloriously large space at the moment and seemed to have no trouble expanding into it in less than a week - like an art-goldfish, my work grows to the size of it's tank ;)