Sharkasaurus

 Weh-hell! Seems I'm actually going to do what I ostensibly set this bloggy thing up for: write a process post! Less words, more pics! Though take *that* with a grain of salt, as I easily get wordy. Mouthy, even.* Back in high school, where I was primarily attempting to skirt around the edges, one teacher (the first of several, truth be told), wrote something along these lines to my folks: "Since she is so quiet in class, I had no idea of her potential until I began to read her papers."

My Dad was outraged, "WHAT are you DOING in that high school??? Once you learned to talk, you have NEVER shut up!!!" I imagine I rolled my eyes to the ceiling or glared at various corners of the room, though I really can't remember. My Mom admonished my Dad, "Ooooooh! THAT'S not helpful!!" Though now that I think about it, she never actually disagreed. Hmmm.

*A few years ago, I became kind of a smart ass. I never used to be one. Possibly left over from a fever.

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Well, so. Let's talk about sharks. Facebook peeps clued me in on the fact that I was totally missing shark week, what with my inadequate cable package. So it appears I'm late to the game.

This woodblock is accompanied by the following text:

"Cakeasaurus could smell batter on the air

like sharks know blood is in the water."

Here's the initial doodle of him, alerted to the....vanilla musk.  

Here he comes a bit further. I decide this design will be a little trippy in that the sharks will be near him visually and waves will be incorporated throughout the image. Even though he's glomming off suburban confections. Bah, scavengers!
 

 

Rawwwwwwwwrrr, sharks! I know, they don't say that.  They don't say much of anything.

The sketch, close to done for my tastes, with all kinds of tracing paper bits and this paper taped to that. This is always a motley affair.

He actually looks kind of serene, doesn't he? He's a bit of an aficionado, even as he's a total glutton.

Flash forward! Carving, carving, bloody knuckles (poor technique, own fault).

 

Enough carving done for the test print. Let the royal rumpus start!

Not so sure about the centermost shark.

Test print accomplished. I definitely have some clean up carving to do, but it's almost ready for the press.

And with the weekend, comes press time! Ready the papercutter, get your mulberry sheets a-rollin'....