Five go mad, chapter two.

Breakfast eaten, dishes washed we jumped in Merlyns Berlingo to head down to the beach laden with large sheets of paper, brushes and ink.
It was very windy so we looked for a spot sheltered enough to get some drawing done.

Rod Nelson looking for the right spot

We finally settled on a rocky spot with a good view through a large arch with plenty of white foaming sea action and got drawing. All of us chucking ink around on the same piece of paper, in the bracing wind, was very liberating. Especially refreshingly so for Rod who had to make a trouserless wade into the sea to recapture a floating sheet of water liberated by the wind.

Then it was back to the studio to do something creative with all this fresh air inspiration that five print makers would be happy with. No pressure then. We started by trimming the ply to size and then decided to draw out an image, but how could we all work on the same piece? Simple, divide it up and each have a bit to work on.

Merlyn by our blocks

Rod and Judith working together on the 'cliffs'

Julia working on her bit of the jigsaw

It all looks quite simple and tranquil, and it was very relaxed but wasn't simple. There was a lot of wandering from block to block, quizzing each other about various sections we were working on, what happens when this bit meets that, how much of this to cut and so on for most of the day. 

The big worry that five separate artists working on their own bits would have their own signature and when it was put together it would look like a dogs dinner. Once we had assembled the pieces there was a collective sigh of relief at the rather nice looking inked blocks. It looked pretty good.

Time to try a proof print. The first part to proof was the under block that Merlyn had been working on. This, as the name suggests, goes under all the other sections of the print and hopefully pins it all together.

We pulled a couple and then went for the assembled over blocks on top.

I think its obvious to see from the grins and excitement on the faces of all involved that we're rather relieved and quite happy at the appearance of the very first print. If it looks like this, we thought, on first proof imagine how it will look after we have obsessed and tweaked over it for another couple of days.