I know this will sound trite, but I had lobsters on the mind the summer of 2013 while reading David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster. After considerable consideration of lobsters, I gained a certain fascination with their articulated bodies, spiny little eyes, and vibrant exoskeleton encasing a heft of delicious flesh. In short, I decided the details of the lobster begged for exploration.

Like so many journeys, this one began with a google search. I am not 100% sure that this is the source that I used, but it’s close at least (left). Then I uploaded the image to an online image flipper (official technical term) to produce the version I would work from (right).   Using the source, I began to sketch out the lobster seen on the top row. Moving from left to right, you can see the details emerge. In particular, you can see the development of the highlights between the top-middle and top-right. I used an eraser to define the areas that I would carve out.

Aside: In the lino cut process, you’re creating a stamp. During the printing process, the parts that get carved out will not pick up ink and the paper will show through, usually being represented as white. Any parts that are left in tact will pick up the ink and will show up on the paper as a block of color. For more detail, visit the Anatomy of a Print homepage. 

The angle on the bottom-left image shows the texture of the print. The background is all carved out on a diagonal bias, intended to look like a cutting board or simply to provide some linear contrast to the mostly curved lines of the lobster. The red field with horizontal linework in upper right background was intended to balance the background of the print.

Alternative background theory: I have tried to do an predominantly white background in other large prints. It did not turn out to my liking.

What, praytell, am I talking about? Above is a series of octopus prints that I produced, the left and middle images were produced from the same 12×18 block. This print was inspired by the print on the right, produced at a much smaller scale 4×6. I was enamored with the noisy, wavy linework in the small version. The undulations feel like waves, and it really uses the medium of the block to great effect.

In the creation of the larger octopus, I produced the image on the left first. I tested out the block leaving the background as an untouched field. This can present challenges printing, as I had to be careful to spread the ink smoothly and apply consistent pressure in the transfer across a large area. I liked it, but I thought that a white background might provide more contrast, and I was in love with the linework in the smaller print. After spending painstaking hours carving out the background of that large octopus print, I found that the linework that looked great on a small scale looked cluttered and lacking purpose on the larger print. And, I couldn’t fix it.

Anyways. That is a long way of saying that even though I had tried to do make a stripped out background in another print and regretted it, I only remembered this lesson about 2/3 of the way through. This resulted in a kind of strange split in the lobster background once I realized that I might be heading down an errant path. Backgrounds have always been a weak spot for me. My HS art teacher would lament that I would draw a figure and leave it unmoored, lacking context in a sea of dead paper. I’m still trying Mr. B! Or I’m still pretending to try.

Moving along, the bottom-middle shows the block fully inked before transfer. I had to really drive the brayer into the background space to make sure that line work was transferred to the final piece (bottom-right).

I like this print quite a bit. I’d like to do another lobster, maybe with another treatment (all blue perhaps?). Maybe something with a more deliberate background. Hard to say.

Questions? Throw them my way. Want to tell me that it’s inhumane to put live lobsters in boiling water and then smother their steaming, succulent flesh in butter? You have every right to do that, but it’s not going to stop me. Want to take me out for lobster rolls? Yes. Please. writetolayne @ gmail dot com.