Whale Song

For the month of June in Lilla Roger's Assignment Bootcamp, we did a nautical theme and we were encouraged to use hand lettering. You have to check out the gallery of so much gorgeous ocean-inspired artwork. It's really incredible!

I chose to do a mama and baby whale because I looooove whales. I've been wanting to test out my idea of printing on top of collage so that's what I did.

I intended to print my linocut edition on top of a series of original collages but it didn't work out. The paper got both stiff and wavy because of the layers of paper and paint. It didn't look good and it was difficult to print on also.

So I scanned the collaged background and printed it out using my Epson printer onto BFK Rives. It looked great! Once I'd printed the linocut, I stamped WHALE SONG and added a little watercolor.

I'm so glad I found a way to make this idea work, because this is how I'd like to make the artwork for my book Baby Sings. I'd been taking a break from working on that dummy, but I'm back at it now!