The Award Winning Kitty and ME!

As my regular readers know, I recently won the Printmaking Cash Award at Fleisher Art Memorial. Imagine my thrill when the check came from the Philadelphia Museum of Art!

To me it was just as thrilling that my woodcut print of a feral cat, "Kensington" was bought by another artist! That's Maria on your right, my print...now HER print... in the middle and me on your left. Of course, I signed, titled and numbered the print, which was #1 of my still-open edition. If you'd like to see my series of animal prints, click HERE If you're interesting in purchasing your own print of "Kensington" or any of my other animal prints, just email me at robinzebley@gmail.com.

So I should be busy printing more Kensingtons and other animal prints. Instead, we took Otto to the Open Studios at the 915 Building in Philadelphia. Here's Otto enjoying the art!


October is when the huge, all - city open studios tour is, so if you're anywhere near Philadelphia, keep that in mind...it's so huge, that it's split into 2 weekends, one east of Broad and the other west. It's a great time and you can buy fabulous pieces right off the easel and often score somewhat of a deal before they hit the galleries. I'll keep you posted on that.

Finally, today I'm working on the background of my Yorkie portrait, it's a very detailed, meaningful background, incorporating the Yorkie's mom's love of the beach and even a sentimental small portrait of her with her mother when she was a girl. So this is more time consuming than my usual background, but soooo meaningful! I enjoy doing human portraits, but my dog work takes most of my time. Same with horses, as much as I enjoy them, it's mostly dogs for me!

Kensington Woodcut Print Wins Award!

Remember "Kensington" the life-sized woodcut print I created from a photo of a rescued feral cat? She's now an award winner! I am thrilled and humbled...my print won the "Printmaking Award" at the annual student show at the Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia!

She is on display in the gallery, along with my reduction cut sheep. I hadn't seen the show hung yet because the "big day" is closing day, not opening day. I stopped by last night and there it was! She won over all of the prints entered from woodcut printmakers created over the past year. Incidentally, the winner for the non-woodcut prints was a gorgeous dog...animals rule!!

How encouraging for me. I am currently working on a woodcut print of 4 boxer puppies.

Now the good news is that as a woodcut print, there's more images of "Kensington" available! If you'd like one of your very own of this award winner, just click on "Etsy" at the top right corner of my blog. She'll come to you signed by me, titled and numbered.

If you'd like to see my pet portrait website, it's robinzebley.com. TO get updates on my blog, just click on "Follwoing this blog" to your right. And if you found this post and want to read my whole blog, click on the banner at the top. Thanks for visiting!! Come again!

Back to Fleisher!

Tomorrow night I start my next series of woodcut relief printing workshops at Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philadelphia with teacher, Jeff Dentz. This is the third time I'm taking this class.

First time, I learned the basics.

Second time, I learned to do a reduction cut.

This time, I'm planning on learning to do multi-plates combined with reduction cuts. My squirrel woodcut will be this and I know Jeff will be a real help with crits and with his excellent suggestions to make me think of possibilities!

Most of all, I miss the comaraderie of fellow printmakers, and I have been told that several of the talented printmakers from last workshops are also coming back for more fun! It also pushes me to work, and I need those deadlines to get more pieces ready. I know I can't really offer prints for sale until I have more than a few...and I'm hoping I'll have a really nice series of urban wildlife after the finish of this class!

My pet portrait website is at robinzebley.com, if you'd like to read more of my blog, just click on the banner at the top. If you'd like updates on this blog, just click on Follow This Blog to your right. Thanks for stoppig by! Robin Zebley

Woodcut relief print cat PROOF- another feral kitty

Back to woodcut printing! I actually cut most of this in my fabulous woodcut printing class I took last fall at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. Our excellent teacher, Jeff Dentz, was so good at listening to what I saw in my mind's eye and helping me develop a plan to accomplish it on wood.

This is the proof. Which means, sort of a test run. I see more areas I want to develop, so there's more cutting ahead today.

While I like the woodgrain to show, I don't like the darkest stripe of woodgrain that goes right through the center of this guy's eye, making it look like he has no iris.

The dark stripe is where the wood is harder, and therefore, the ink doesn't sink in as much. To compensate, I'm going to go back in and cut deeper. Of course, the eyes are scary to cut, one mistake and the piece is trash.

This piece is 19 x 10, my largest piece yet and virtually lifesize. I really like working larger.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you what I'm up to. I'm also working on another children's portrait in colored pencil. And the big news is I took apart the vacuum cleaner and found the giant clog of shredded paper that Otto so kindly decorated the rug with!

Comments most welcome...especially before I start cutting again!

I'm American Artist, Robin Zebley. My pet portrait website is http://robinzebley.com ...stop on by!

Woodcut Cat Print - A South Philly Girl

Last night I started my second woodcut print class at Fleisher Art Memorial on Catherine Street in South Philly. I cut this woodblock last summer, but just printed it last night. It was really fun for me to be around other artists again, and especially those who are interested in this medium. Everyone in the class seemed really dedicated to learning the art of woodcut printing, and we have a great teacher who really encourages us to get creative and experiment but is available for technical help. Experimenting and just pushing myself creatively is really important for me, because when I do portraits, I don't have that luxury!

I printed this on mulberry paper with Daniel Smith oil printmaking ink in black. The image is about 6 x 6.

As far as the image of my South Philly Girl, I really ramped up the contrast. Love dramatic lighting and I really pushed it. I used a "V" gouge, razor blade and for the details I used a mini wirebrush tool. I love to show how light hits the eye and travels through to subtly light up the opposite side. Easy enough to do with pencil or paint! To make that happen in a woodcut, I used the wirebrush, which I also used on the fur in spots. I love how it makes the eye look so "3D"!

I printed a bunch last night, this will be an open edition, each numbered, signed by me and titled, "A South Philly Girl" and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. $18 for each print, and I pay the mailing costs.