Today's postings

  1. [Baren 43381] Re: Thanks ("Ellen Shipley")
  2. [Baren 43382] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
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Message 1
From: "Ellen Shipley"
Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 16:40:28 GMT
Subject: [Baren 43381] Re: Thanks
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Oh yes, I use rails too. Forgot that part. Very important. ;-]

Ellen

Digest Appendix

Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
over the past 24 hours ...

Subject: Psalm 23
Posted by: Daniel L. Dew

I took a very long time on this Psalm, for many reasons. I figured this would be the one most people
look for first (Google), the most recognizable, the most "universal", the most comforting, the most everything that everyone loves about the Psalms.

I spent a very long time in contemplation also, which verse or verses to illustrate? I had many ideas, many images (someday I may come back to this Psalm again and illustrate those many different versions). But for now, I like the resulting image I have done.

" He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters."

I also went ahead and tried a technique I had not used before, more of a stippling or pecking motion with the carving tool. The image is 6.25" x 8", carved on standard lino block.

I used as my model a young man I know and positioned him at the angle that my minds eye "saw". Can't say exactly why, It just "worked".

The most difficult task in the image was the mental gymnastics, for me at least, of working from a dark to light rather than the other way around. Those of you who are printmakers will understand, those of you who are not, well, here goes: in relief printing, everything is reversed. When carving a line or circle, it is usually easy. When carving out of a field of black already, it gets a little trickier. At least for me it was!

Then of course the next "problem" became: what in the world am I going to use for the decorative initial and illumination? If this is the print they have been waiting for (I know, a little pompous, but hey), then I need to make the illumination just as good, maybe even better.


So, I decided to design something classical and classy, but still had a little flair to it.























Funny thing is, the more I try and make these designs interesting and full of "flair", the harder and harder they get to draw and paint!

Somehow they look much easier when I design them at 500% of the finished size, totally forgetting
that I now need to reduce them down to be decoration and not the artwork itself.

But try painting some of these things!  I am down to a brush with like one hair in it!

So, after much complaining and whining, here is the illumination:

[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog A Psalm Quest.
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Subject: Baren
Posted by: Andrew Stone



This is my primary printing press.
A Murasaki, Medium Baren made in Japan of braided hard nylon cord.
It is covered with a bamboo skin/leaf which, over time and with use will crack and wear out.
I need to do some serious printing this week and the small concentric circular holes that were forming in the cover meant it was time to be replaced.
The top photo shows the old cover removed from the baren itself.


[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog Lacrime di Rospo.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.