Post #361772 by Tiki Shark Art on Sun, Feb 17, 2008 6:50 PM

Aloha~
LLT ~ Thanks Ken. I'm really having too much fun with this printing process. Just the idea that they are being printed on an antique iron 2000 lb printing press is cool.
Chongolio ~ Big Mahalo buddy! Howzit on your island? Seems like we're still getting the tail end of the rain storm a bit here.
Tiki Racer ~ Sure thing, I'll keep one put aside for you.
Flat Black ~ Thank you so much! I'm glad you're digging it!

The Artist's Proofs are done. And, they came out great! Earl told me he was so into the subject matter for this print, that he carved the wooden block for about four days with hardly any sleep. Check em out...

The artist's proofs are on a news print like paper. The actual run will be on a much thicker stock.

There's just a touch here and there to be cleaned up before the actual run. The edges of the image will be clean and hard edged on the final print. You can see my signature on the bottom left, and Earl's on the right.

From my talks with Earl, I guess the method of having two people (the artist and the craftsman) create, carve, and sign the finished print went out of vogue in the 1920's. He's pretty sure there are no other artist/carver teams any more. And darned sure that there are none doing "Tiki Art"! I think Tiki Art totally lends itself to this whole antique/retro process. It's a natural!

I actually dig all the little imperfections and the ragged edges on these proofs. You'll notice the unfinished piece just above the Tiki's eye - that will be finished in the final run. All that stuff seems to make each one so unique.

Now that I have a sense how fine of detail Earl can carve - (and he can carve some REALLY fine details) - I'm pushing to make each image in this "Tiki" print series more detailed, and better than the last.

I am having too much fun!

Big Aloha from the Big Island!