The lino block I carved twice because I wasn't happy
So there's this heron I've been working on for about three weeks. Big fella, landing pose, wings up, the whole bit. Carved the whole thing. Proofed it. And it was just... dead. Technically fine, lines were clean, composition held up, but there was nothing in it. No weight to the landing, no sense of the bird actually coming down onto something. Just a heron-shaped object hovering in space.
Stuck it in a drawer. Left it there a full week. Every time I opened the drawer I'd see it and feel a bit sick.
Last night I got the block back out, printed it dark to see what I had, and went at it again with the gouges. Cut the whole background away differently. Dropped the waterline lower. Gave the legs some actual bend, some tension. It's a completely different print now, same heron, same block, but there's air around him and he's actually landing somewhere.
I don't know why it took me a week to admit the first pass was banjaxed. Pride maybe. Or just not wanting to face another three evenings of carving. But the block didn't punish me for it. That's the mad thing, lino doesn't hold a grudge. You can keep cutting into it till you get it right or till there's nothing left.
Anyone else ever finished something, knew it was wrong, and just sat on it for ages before fixing it?
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oh man, i know that sick feeling exactly. the thing that's technically fine but just... not alive. that's the worst because you can't even point at what's wrong exactly, you just know.
three weeks though and then going back in, that takes guts. most people would've called it done and moved on. i think the best stuff comes from that moment where you decide "no, this isn't what i meant" and you're willing to wreck it to get closer.
curious how the second carve changed it. did you take more off the wings? shift the angle? or was it something in the negative space around it?
the "technically fine" thing is such a trap right? like your brain goes but i did everything right???? and the thing still sits there dead. i've had pieces come out of the kiln looking perfect and i just put them in the corner and don't look at them for a week.
respect to op for going back in honestly. i'd have been too scared to touch it again and just started something new out of spite.
"technically fine but dead", that's the whole battle isn't it. and the kiln thing, I know exactly what you mean. there's something brutal about pulling something out and it looking immaculate and you just know. no fixing it either, not really.
ah sure I was scared alright. nearly talked myself out of it three or four times. kept telling meself I'd just start a new one and take the lessons, but I knew I'd be looking at that heron in the drawer every day for the rest of me life. couldn't have that.
ah you've hit the nail on the head there, that's exactly it, when you can't even diagnose it, you just know it's not breathing. worst feeling in the world, worse than a bad print where you can see the error plain as day.
the second carve was mostly in the legs and the waterline actually. first time round I had him kind of floating, no suggestion of where he was headed. so I took the legs down thinner, gave them that bend they do when they're about to touch down, and then I carved a whole new set of ripples underneath, just a suggestion, not full water, but enough that the eye puts him down on something. the wings I barely touched, they were grand. it was all the stuff happening below him that was the problem.
the sick feeling though. I don't think that ever goes away, you just get better at knowing what to do with it. thanks for the kind words, seriously. makes a difference hearing someone else knows the exact flavour of that particular dread.