Mark B Hill Art

Art Kit

2012-01-30T21:32:00.002-06:00

I am already getting ready for spring, when I can go out and start drawing on the street. I planned on starting sketching downtown Madison before it turned cold, but I waited too long. Next time I will be ready. I am collecting my tools and supplies early. Pictured above is my travel watercolor set, my Rotring sketching pen, my Koh-i-Noor Rapidosketch, and a Niji Waterbrush. The glue stick? That's for any ephemera I might want to tack into the sketchbook. The drawing is in my Hand-Book Travel sketch journal, which is why I didn't actually draw the journal.

Monday is my hermit day now that winter is here, but once it warms up that will change. Once Spring arrives, Monday will be my "bike to downtown to draw" day.

I'm still saving up for one of those three-legged camp stools, so that I don't have to sit on the ground...

I guess I have found some recent inspiration. I recently checked out from the library a new book on art journaling . It is Artists' Journal Workshop by Cathy Johnson. Just leafing through it inspired me. Now I plan to buy it very soon and actually read it!

And in case you're interested, here's the Amazon.com link.

Or you can visit her website by clicking here.

Sisyphus

2012-01-23T08:22:00.000-06:00

I remember seeing this animated short on public television. Given the date it was made, I would have been about 12 or 13. It obviously made an impression on me. I wanted to share it.

We all feel like Sisyphus sometimes.....

Sketch Journal 22Jan12

2012-01-23T07:46:00.000-06:00

It was a good day yesterday to stay in. Although I just spent the week in bed with the flu, that's not the same. Yesterday I was actually able to be productive. I straightened, I de-cluttered, I organized. I now have a cup for my markers, one for my pens and this beauty is for my brushes and nibs.

And today? Well, the weather outside is frightening....and well, it's my usual day of seclusion. I have movies, I have tea, and I have a lot of energy for doodling and sketching. I call that a perfect day off.

And by the way, I drew this with a number "0" Koh-I-Noor Rapidosketch pen in my favorite Flexosketch sketchbook..

The Outpost

2012-01-16T22:42:00.001-06:00

I plan on coloring this tomorrow or the next day. Tonight, though it's way past my bedtime...

Sketchbook Project-Headwrap

2012-01-16T21:54:00.002-06:00

I'm not doing so well on the Sketchbook Project. I put off too long starting it, for one. I have ended up with a lot of doodles and not much in the way of cohesive sketching. Next year, if I do it again, I will get an earlier start.

I have almost filled the sketchbook, though. I'm definitely going to be ready to mail it out for the deadline.

They All Warned Uncle Jon...

2012-01-09T17:11:00.003-06:00

I completely forgot to post this. I can't believe it!

As you probably know, this is a complete work of fiction. We have no snow here. I have lived in Wisconsin for 23 years now and I can't remember when we haven't had snow in January. I mean substantial snow. It has snowed a little this winter but no more than an inch or so and it melted within the following few days. Still, there are those who still do not believe in climate change.

This was a sketchbook doodle I did, of course, at the Job. It was a slow day. It started as a hand doodle and proceeded from there. Someday, I really do plan on taking the doodles and the concept sketches and turning them into actual finished drawings. Someday...

It is however, available now as a t-shirt and small art print on my Society6 page.

More Sketchbook Project sketches

2012-01-01T19:57:00.001-06:00

One thing I realized, it being January 1st and all, is that I had better get busy finishing my Sketchbook Project sketchbook. The deadline is Jan 31st. It is a small book, and I only have to get maybe 6 double page drawings done by then. Can I do it?

I'm pretty sure I can. I have been drawing, to be sure, but I never seem to remember to pick up the book from The Sketchbook Project. Otherwise, I would have had it filled long ago. I have 2 or 3 sketchbooks going at once, really.

Like the treehouse? I plan on developing that further into a larger full-fledged drawing. I need more limbs. I need it to be more detailed and complicated. Obsessive that I am, I should have no trouble with that at all...

Again, Happy 2012 everyone!

The new website has launched!

2011-12-28T21:59:00.001-06:00

I now have a real, honest-to-goodness website. With my own domain and everything. Please, check it out when you get an opportunity. Just follow the link below:

Mark B Hill Art

I am keeping this blog, for news and views purposes, but will soon be dropping the sketchblog Art Explorations in the near future. Call it a merger. Call it simplification.

Oh and by the way Happy New Year!

An Old One with Bad Habits...

2011-08-27T16:59:00.001-05:00

Coffee and Cigarettes, original linocut print, handpulled. Edition of 35.

Signed and numbered by the artist.

This is for all the Lovecraft fans and followers out there! I have been doodling and sketching this one for a few months now. I finally felt that it was time to make it a blockprint.

I consciously started carving the block knowing that it would be a black and white print. Out of habit I am wondering what it would look like in color, but I think I'm keeping it like this for now. You may have noticed a trend toward black and white prints. It's a mood. I can't explain it. I have recently been quite inspired by printmakers who work solely in black and white. I encourage you to look at their work. Namely Ramon Rodrigues, John Beckmann of Stampede Press, and Hugh Bryden

If you are interested, Coffee and Cigarettes is available for purchase at my Etsy shop.

Bird Mask

2011-07-20T19:28:00.000-05:00

This time I thought I would do a black and white print. I mean, this really doesn't need any color. I have always been inspired by woodcut artists such as Barry Moser and George A Walker. I realize that both do wood engravings, which is a whole different ballgame. Not even close to linoleum block prints.

I was happy, though, that I was able to retain such detail in this piece. The linoleum I have been using lately is the golden-cut kind and it certainly holds a line well.

This piece sprang from a series of doodles I drew the last month or so. I had just finished reading The Light Boxes by Shane Jones. There is a group of insurgents who call themselves The Solution who wear bird masks. So that planted a seed, I suppose...

I am also contemplating making a bird mask such as this. Halloween is only 3 months away!

The print measures 3.75 x 4 inches and is printed on Masa paper. It is available at my Etsy shop.

The Vines of Dreamland Come Calling

2011-07-10T10:29:00.003-05:00

I remember my dreams better than I used to. They are very vivid sometimes, very lucid. I keep a notebook by my bedside to write them down when I wake up. Seriously, if I had a nickel for everytime I promised I would remember a dream later when I actually woke up...well...we might not be having this conversation in the first place.

I used to do it all the time. I would wake up with some line of poetry (yeah I used to write poetry) or some image that I wanted to draw or otherwise build upon. I would think to myself, "there's no way I won't remember this..." I would then fall back asleep, dozing.

When I would wake again, it would be gone. Poof. Like it was never there in the first place, maybe I was dreaming that I had dreamed the dream in the first place

This one, though I wrote down. Just the seed: the vines of dreamland. I thought maybe it's a good line for a poem. No, I'm kidding. The image worked itself into my consciousness, where I carried it around for days. I sketch things in my head sometimes. I never lose pencils or spill ink that way.

This is an artist proof which I decided to color. I have yet to print the edition put I will. I have to clean up the little bits I missed and, well, hope that I get a cleaner print that what you see here. You say perfectionist like it's a bad thing.

Still, if you are interested or have any questions or concerns, let me know. I'm fairly easy to get a hold of.

Small Works

2011-06-27T11:01:00.001-05:00

I am enjoying working on smaller linocut prints lately. I was stuck, severely impeded, on my artwork. I just couldn't come up with any tangible ideas for blocks. So I decided to go small. I cut several pieces of linoleum either 2 x 2 or
3 x 3 inches. It's a great way to get rid of the trimmings and piece, too. So now when I am feeling stuck, I think small. Baby steps....

And here are more of the results of these baby steps.

Those are the 2 x 2's that I have done so far. Here are a couple of the "larger"
3 x 3's:

All the above prints are hand-colored, in editions of 25. As with most of my prints, these are all available for purchase at my Etsy store. If you see something on the blog that is not listed on my Etsy store, please feel free to contact me.

Koi

2011-06-16T20:48:00.000-05:00

When I made handbound books, I usually decorated the covers with copper repousee. I loved doing that although the medium can be limited. Details are usually lost.

Here's an example....

Anyway, some of my blockprints are themes that I tried to explore when I was doing the copper tooling. I would say that the blockprint is the winner hands down (although if I remember right I didn't have that book for very long)

The print is a handpulled linocut, measuring 3 x 3 inches. It is handcolored with watercolors and printed on 90 lb Stonehenge paper. It is available at my Etsy shop.

Four Books I've Recently Read That Have Influenced and Inspired Me.

2011-06-12T11:45:00.001-05:00

Since Valerie gave me a Kindle for Christmas last year, I have turned into a voracious reader again. I find the Kindle easier to concentrate on because of the consistency of the font, for one. Yeah, my age is showing. There are some typefaces that I can't tolerate. With the Kindle I can pick the easiest to read typeface.

And since I have been reading more, my artwork has become more inspired. I try to mix up my fiction and non-fiction (which doesn't always work) but the fiction I have read in the last few months has had a definite influence on my work.

So I wanted to recommend them, in no particular order. All are available on Amazon.com

The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich is full of darkness. Dark images, dark emotions. The images are still in my head. They may never disappear. I am hungry for more...

Light Boxes by Shane Jones is an allegory of war. Winter takes hold and doesn't let go. When children start disappearing for no reason, the townspeople declare war on Winter hoping that he will relinquish his hold....

The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno. Parodying the teen detective genre and life itself. Funny and sad at the same time. Smartly written without being too glib.

Galore by Michael Crummey. A beautiful tale most likely inspired by Garcia Marqez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. The book is a family history of the residents of Paradise Deep a small fishing village on the coast of Newfoundland. One day they discover a man inside the belly of a beached whale and the course of their history is forever altered...

I know it's a short list for summer reading. If you do read any of these I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

The Vampire Version

2011-06-04T06:58:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what you can do by changing the color scheme on a print. In the back of my mind I think I painted it this way to demonstrate the variations of color. I mean, yes, most of the colors I use in a print are of a limited palette. But this variation is like a whole new print.

Good Morning

2011-05-22T10:10:00.000-05:00

A good morning for me starts with coffee. I love espresso (two sugars please) and regular brewed coffee (cream and sugar). I love the smell of brewing coffee, love the sound sugar makes when you pour it in. I wake in the morning and after fixing Valerie breakfast and lunch for her day, I make a pot of coffee. Before I do anything else. It's my routine. There are certainly worse vices than coffee, many of which I have indulged in the past. I am happy to say I am smoke-free for 11 years now. I used to start my morning with a double espresso and Gauloise cigarettes. Not any more. I am still a coffee addict. I admit it freely...

I made this print with the intention of being a companion piece to the Espresso Pot print. Or it could, of course, stand alone. It measures 2 x 2 inches, signed and numbered. It is available on my Etsy shop either as an individual print or with Espresso Pot.

Now I'm going to go enjoy a second cup...

She Sees Right Through

2011-05-16T20:16:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure where this image came from. Some deep dark recesses of my psyche, yes, maybe. Or I had a dream that I forgot about. I have been sketching something similiar for the last year, to the point that it was overworked and I grew tired of the idea. It remains abandoned for now...

And the figure in the original was a male. In fact when I started drawing this one night, the thought was it was going to be a man's face. Then the phrase came into my head "she sees right through me" popped into my head.

A lot of my art comes from doodles. I'm a compulsive doodler.

The print measures 3 x 3 inches. It is handcolored, signed and numbered and available through my Etsy shop.

Two more 2 x 2's

2011-05-14T19:01:00.000-05:00

Here are two more mini-blockprints. I am enjoying doing these. They are detailed, yes, but still simple. I doubled up on these two because I am carving and printing these faster than I can post them.

Yes, I have been busy. I seem to making up for a long stretch of non-creativity. It certainly was a long winter. But now it seems to be over...

Both prints measure 2 x 2 inches and are handcolored, signed and numbered by me. They are available for purchase at my Etsy shop.

A Pair of Pears

2011-05-09T07:02:00.000-05:00

Here's another mini-print. I have been doing a lot of these lately. I finished 3 and started a fourth over the weekend. Today seems like a good day to actually print a few of these, so I will be posting them once the ink is dry and they have been watercolored.

As with the Apples print, it measures 2 x 2 inches and is handcolored with watercolor. Printed with Caligo SafeWash relief printing ink on Stonehenge Rising paper. Edition of 20. Matted, numbered, and signed by me.

You may purchase it buy clicking here.

Apples

2011-05-07T16:55:00.000-05:00

During the past week I have been doing smaller prints. Smaller even than my alphabet prints. I had all these long narrow strips of unmounted linoleum and didn't want to just throw them away, so I cut them all in 2 inch squares. I then mounted them to pieces of plexiglass, of which I also have a lot of "scraps." I call these blocks my Etsy blocks, because that's where they will be available for purchase.

As quickly as I am carving and printing these, I will be posting them fairly often. I already have a backlog. Because of the small size I am forced to do relatively simple designs.

And as I said before, the above print is available at my Etsy shop or you can click here.

Bumble Bee

2011-05-06T07:33:00.000-05:00

I have been struggling for awhile with the art. It's just wasn't coming. I blame it on Winter's obstinacy and Spring's reluctance to emerge. Oh sure I got a lot of reading done, but very little artwork.

It was not for lack of ideas. I have a list of them, all big projects and all complicated. A voice in my head said the truest thing: Simplify, simplify.

And that was the solution. Within a week or so I have carved several very small linoleum blocks. The print above is roughly 3 x 3. I have smaller ones, too, of which I will post in the coming days.

Bumble Bee measures 3.25 x 3 inches and comes matted in an 10 x 8 mat. It is handpulled and handcolored, signed and numbered by me. An edition of 20. It is available for purchase on my Etsy shop.

Even though it's a bumblebee, I will donate 15% of sales from this print to The Honeybee Conservancy.

Kraken

2011-05-01T09:07:00.003-05:00

I guess Winter is finally over. With Spring comes inspiration and motivation. The creative juices begin to circulate. I have been carving blocks like mad the last couple weeks. I had plenty of ideas for blocks, all of them complicated pieces that would involve hours of dedicated time and energy. All of them still are in the sketch stage.

So I gave myself good advice: SImplify, simplify. So I started doing smaller blocks with simple pictures that wouldn't take me long to produce, yet made me feel a sense of, well, accomplishing something.

Well, okay the above piece, Kraken, wasn't exactly the most simple. But it was a breakthrough of sorts. It was inspired by a mix of Lovecraft and a diet of 1950's science fiction movies. I watch movies while I work, so the influence is bound to come through once in awhile.

Kraken measures 5" x 7" and is printed on Stonehenge Rising 90 lb paper. I used Caligo Safe Wash Relief Ink to print. Handcolored with watercolor.
A side note to all printmakers. If you haven't tried Caligo SafeWash Ink, I highly recommend it. Simply put: no solvents, no stink. And everything cleans up with soap and water. And since it has no solvents, it can be used with the e-z cut blocks, if that's what you like to use. Once dried it is insoluble, though.

Honeybee

2011-03-22T21:15:00.001-05:00

I did this block and printed it a few weeks ago. I can't believe it has taken me this long to post. Did you think maybe I was dead? No, not me, maybe I was sleeping...

This has been a weird winter. I haven't been very productive, to be sure. I usually hit a lull toward the end of the year, and by the middle of January I'm through it. Not this time, the winter blahs are hanging on with a death grip.

Spring is almost here, though. I don't need to consult a calendar to know that. It's a feeling in the air, a feeling of, well it's hard to describe. Can't you feel it? It doesn't matter that tomorrow they are predicting snow and that Spring is a big tease. It's going to be Spring soon.

And with Spring, I wake from a creative slumber to see that there is once again beauty beneath all that snow and ice. And I live for the beauty and weirdness of life.

Crow on a Banjo

2011-03-07T08:37:00.000-06:00

I want to get into the music business. Seriously. I can't play an instrument, though, but it doesn't matter. What I want to get into is doing art for bands. You know, CD/album covers, t-shirts, flyers. You get the idea.

So here's the deal. You have a band and have an idea of what you want for cover art. I would prefer, of course, to do a blockprint. You let me know what you want and I will do the artwork for a copy of the CD. You do t-shirts, I want a t-shirt. Sounds fair, right?

Anyway, it's just a thought.

My idea behind this is work is I thought it would go well with bluegrass.

I seem to having a trend towards doing more black and white prints. I don't plan on coloring this one. I think it looks pretty good as it is. I have a couple more in store in the next few days in fact.

This print measure 8 x 12 inches and is printed on masa printmaking paper. I have yet to print the full edition but once I do it will be available for purchase. Inquiries are welcome!

The Things I Carry...

2011-02-20T11:29:00.000-06:00

This was just an artist's proof, to see if the block was finished or needed more carving. I printed it on masa paper, which doesn't take watercolor quite as well as Stonehenge. I'm not even sure yet if I will print a full edition of this linocut.

I have to say I am not as happy with this one as most of my others. I felt uninspired while doing it but kept thinking "maybe it will turn out." My first instinct is no, it did not.

So, these are two things I don't leave the house with. My bag and my coffee cup. Oddly enough, since I began this block, both bag and cup are different. A better bag and a much better, leakproof coffee cup. Inside my bag are my essentials to getting through the day: Sketchbook, pens and Kindle.

Food? Who needs that?

Yes, there is even room for a lunch.