Introducing Mr. "Bloom"... and a Giveaway!

My latest linocut is of a slightly apprehensive broccoli guy encountering a bee. It comes in two different color schemes. I call the print "Bloom." Personally I think of him as "Mr. Bloom," But I don't want to be too gender-specific with a plant in case some people perceive him as a "she" or an "it." Maybe I'm overthinking it.

Anyway, back in 2012 after I successfully launched my Kickstarter campaign to produce The Golden Moth Illumination Deck, I had promised to create 96 small original artworks for backers who chose it in their reward levels. Here are some examples of artwork I created. You can see another vegetable-ish creature in the bottom right corner that looks like an asparagus!

I kept the paintings simple. Most started out with me just putting blobs of watercolor onto several papers at once, and then I decided what each blob should become. I kept some of my favorites, including this broccoli guy. Recently I decided to make him into a linocut, because I hadn't done any personal printmaking work in awhile.

He looked silly to me because he was so serious-looking. I added the bee to give him more of a relationship with the outside world.

For this print, I created a stencil for the green/pink portion of the print and rolled the ink with a brayer directly onto the paper. I made the stencil by taking a piece of computer paper and varnishing it on both sides so it was waterproof and I could re-use it. I chose computer paper because I thought that if I rolled the brayer of ink over something thicker like cardstock, the ink might not lay down close enough inside the edges of the stencil. 

I took this picture after I had already cleaned the stencil, so you can't see the mess of ink on the stencil itself. Also, the border part was printing weird, so I just blocked it out with tape and didn't use it at all. I cut out little right-angle triangles on the corners of the stencil so I could see through to my printing paper underneath and it would line up correctly.

It took me a couple proofing sessions to figure out the greenish-blue I wanted for the linocut. Then I took it to the etching press and printed the linocut on top of the stencilled part.

Ta-da! I also added the yellow to the bee with colored pencil.

If you like Mr. (or Ms.) Bloom and want him/her to be part of your world, please enter my giveaway!

"BLOOM" GIVEAWAY RULES:

I'm giving away one version of this print (either pink or green, winner decides) to one randomly-selected person who enters the giveaway. You must do the following THREE things to enter the giveaway:

1. Please visit my online shop, Sprout Head, and leave a comment on this post telling me both what your favorite item/s are in the shop and why, AND what you'd like to see more of (either something similar to what you see already or an entirely new product that you want me to make).

IMPORTANT: You must either adjust your settings to receive e-mails about replies to your comments, or send me your e-mail address - or else I can't contact you if you win! You may e-mail me at: good_old_fashioned_smell ( at ) hotmail (dot) com. You may also private message me on my Sprout Head Facebook page. In fact, head on over there anyway because you also need to do the following:

2. "Like" my Facebook page! If you want to be the first to get notifications on the Sprout Head page, also make sure that after you "like" my page, click on "liked" and scroll the drop-down menu to click on "Get notifications." Otherwise, you may not always see updates from my page on your news feed.

3. Share this giveaway with other people on Facebook by posting it on your page and/or sharing it on your friends' timelines. Here's the link: http://aijungkim.blogspot.com/2014/05/introducing-mr-bloom-and-giveaway.html

OPTIONAL: Your name gets thrown in the hat for each additional OPTIONAL thing that you do. Make sure to let me know in your comment if you do the following things:

- Follow my blog - you can find options to do so on the right-hand side of the blog - Subscribe to my E-Newsletter here (I only send out updates 1-2 times a month)
- Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway
- Blog about the giveaway on your blog.
- Pin an image of "Bloom" on an appropriate board on your Pinterest page. You may pin from this blog post, or from the Etsy listings here: pink and green versions.

REMEMBER, you must do only the FIRST THREE of these things to have your name entered once into the giveaway!

GIVEAWAY CLOSES ON MONDAY, MAY 26th AT MIDNIGHT EST.

* P.S. Don't forget to contact me with your e-mail address or I cannot contact you if you win! *

Good luck!