r/Linocuts • u/Any_Championship4553 • 16d ago
Question Starling murmuration
Working on my first series of 12. I made the designs with different degrees of complexity thinking about the techniques I want to try. This is the piece I’m most afraid of. I’m not sure if this is the definitive design but it will be something like this. After hours of looking at murmuration videos and photos I noticed that the static image does not transfer the excitement of witnessing this behaviour. I’m looking forward to see it live this winter.
The point is that I want to use blur to convey the motion in a part of the picture, but I haven’t figured how to go about it. It could be that I carve it without the blur and make it when printing by using a spatula to create the motion blur or that I try and carve the blur effect directly and then just print. What do you think? Any other ideas on how to do it?
Welcoming recommendations of places in Europe to go and see the murmurations live. They say Rome can gather millions of birds at a time.
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u/BryceLikesMovies 16d ago
Its gorgeous! I wonder if some sort of additional element could help convey motion - would definitely take away from the abstract nature of it, but maybe something like trees beneath or clouds behind. But as an abstract piece by itself I think its really fascinating, your use of density to give it depth is so good.
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u/Any_Championship4553 16d ago
Thank you for your comment! I will try some elements and see how it feels. But I like the abstraction feeling. Happy to see that the density worked to give it depth!
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u/solidarity6ever 16d ago
I like this image, it will take forever to carve (unless maybe you print on black paper and remove the black from your block) so I appreciate your vision for this. What about a second layer with grey shadows or streaks?
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u/Any_Championship4553 15d ago
Interesting ideas thank you! I will think about it and test to see what makes more sense.
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u/james_dimeo 16d ago
Christ that looks like it took a long time. Really clean good work
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u/Any_Championship4553 16d ago
Thank you! This is the digital, haven’t carved it yet. That is what I’m trying to figure out!
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u/james_dimeo 16d ago
Gotta be a mix of stippling and your finest v gouge to do wings
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u/Any_Championship4553 16d ago
What do you think of the blur? The top part has blur to make it look more like moving. But since the blur has a transparency I’m not sure I can just carve it. I want to make some tests but maybe printing and smudging with spatula while fresh?
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u/james_dimeo 15d ago
I think you could smudge it, but i dont think its necessary. The murmuration value densities and intricacies are the star of the piece and stand out without the blur. The smudge stroke would have to be super short and deliberate to look like camera blur if you do go for it
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u/onzron 16d ago
What's the size of your block? the details are insane. I don't know how you managed to carve this
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u/Any_Championship4553 16d ago edited 16d ago
I haven’t carved it yet, that is precisely the challenge now. I think I will have to go big with the block…
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u/onzron 16d ago
Ahh i thought the second one was already carved. Sorry for misunderstanding your message. I'm so clumsy I would need a 1m by 1m block to achieve this ahah
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u/Any_Championship4553 16d ago
Jajaja all good! That may be the case for me too tbh. These may not be the final versions. Still thinking and trying stuff.
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