For this piece, I carved out a bluebird in linoleum and made numerous ink prints. I chose a bluebird because they are probably one of my favorite birds and my family loves birds. we have eight or ten bird feeders out by our deck and in a day you will see hundreds of birds.

To create this project I carved a linoleum block to represent a bird then created several prints. In these prints, I included external materials such as colored pencils and numerous colors of ink. I also printed onto a non-traditional surface.

In creating this project I used techniques and ideas I have not used in any other work. I learned through the process how to carve and print and different techniques and styles in that as well. To start, I first had to draw what I wanted my print to be. Gaining inspiration from James Green and his printed birds, I decided to do a bird as well. I searched up some images of bluebirds and found one I liked. I drew out the basic pose and added my own features to make it mine. From here I used the graphite transfer technique to move the image onto the linoleum. Once I got the design out onto the linoleum I started to outline it in sharpie. For this part, I decided to cut it short mainly because the sharpie was hard to apply since it didn't stick on very well. This wasn't a problem though because I wrapped it up so it didn't smudge and brought it home to work on it. the carving was pretty fun and went smoothly. I experimented a bit with the process and techniques and began to see the bird come to life. I was lenient with the process since I knew it would give me some space to adapt later on. I left in some details that I wasn't quite sure I needed but I was making sure to be better safe than sorry. Next, I brought it back in and we could start printing. I rolled out some ink and made four original pieces, three black, and one green. The green one turned out the best I think but I wasn't done yet. Next, I continued on and made another two solid color prints, both red. After that, I moved onto the multicolor prints. I decided to go with green and purple. My first was very light and blotchy but my second came out just the way I wanted it to. After that, I decided to start the non-traditional print, Mrs.Medsker gave me the idea to do a card and she also mentioned that Mother's day was coming up so that's exactly what I went with. I decided to do a large, red heart on the front with ink, so I cut out a heart-shaped stencil and print it directly onto the bristol paper I chose. It went quite well and I think it looks pretty good. As that was drying I added "happy mothers day!" on the front and from there moved onto the extended print. I decided to go with one of my first solid color prints to color on. I went with a pretty simple color design using purple, blue, brown, and green. I like the way this one turned out as well. At this point the heart was dry and I turned to the inside page and put down a blue, solid color print of the bird and also wrote a little message to my mom too. At this point, I was done with the project and I am really happy with the way the prints turned out in the end. If I was to continue this project the only thing I might do is re-print the bird inside of the card, it was a little heavy on the ink, I think.