The Mad Angler’s Manifesto

So there was this poem and…   Well initially I thought to do an intaglio print to accompany this but I’ve been on the linoleum kick lately after the six color blocks for The Path so decided to try a couple new things. A color reduction print, always boggled my mind but why not? Maximum sheet size for my Vandercook proof press in close registration on a 10 x 20″ linoleum block? Why not? eight press runs  –   they’re short, ok…

A relief printing color reduction print is started with the lightest color and only removing the whites, the negative space around the overall image. Then progressively removing more of the linoleum to create the next layer of color. Taking into account the ink transparency and how how it interacts with the previous layer. Looking at it close, in visual reading range (about 5-6′) and from across the room as a compositional complement to what is going on with the text. Just things I think about… Different things happen with the trout at various distances, something your computer just can’t translate…

The nature of reduction printing precludes any future editions. The block is systematically destroyed in the creation of the finished print.

From the beginning I planned to add a bit of red/sienna in the fins to the image and so left those areas open with the white to hit with some water color at the very end. If those areas had remained to print the sienna at the end it would have to have been over the black and that would have meant a very opaque ink, probably two press runs of a silver and then the sienna over it (which would have been cool) but I wanted it to remain washed out and transparent. I also wanted the salvaged block of the last run to be used for an under print on the secondary edition. (see below)

In this case:

• The text block and title
• Light blue
• Grey
• Yellow green
• Mid Green
• Olive
• Umber
• Black

Here’s the progression in a pictorial form:

The specs

Composed on the Linotype in 24pt Lydian with Americana Display type in 144pt with an 8 line Americana piece of wood type for the drop cap. Printed on Somerset Book 175gsm cotton paper in an edition of 50. 18 5/8 x 26 inches (47 x 66 cm), signed and numbered by the author and artist.

The secondary edition is of the poem printed on some white domestic commercial stock with a rough finish I’ve had left over for years now and features the result of the final linoleum block state. What is the black in the previous edition is now a dab of raw sienna mixed with heavy plate oil to create an underprinted image of the trout with the poem. Edition of 36, 12 3/4 x 26 inches (32 x 66 cm), signed and lettered by the author and artist.

Secondary edition. The Mad Angler’s Manifesto

That’s a really fat 21″ brooky/brown and this is how I typically see trout this size – swimming away from me…. Mike is coming by tomorrow morning to sign and number them with me, not enough time to get out on the water though.

Better pictures and available to purchase on my website next week when I return from the Kerrytown Bookfest in Ann Arbor this weekend. Come see me Sunday if you happen to be in the area. I’ll have books, prints, ephemera and will be demonstrating intaglio printmaking once again. If your kid is cute enough (and well behaved) they get a free signed print.

Update: Here’s Mike and me signing off on the edition.

Michael Delp and Chad Pastotnik signing the edition.