Finished Winter Wren Lino

Here is the final Winter Wren lino, one of an edition of 24. My friend Ellen at The Spicebush Blog mentioned that it reminded her of a Carolina Wren due to bright supercilium and long tail. Sharp eyes! With lino there's only so much cross hatching you can do when trying to render a shade or gray. Because I didn't want to completely lose the supercilium by making it too dark I probably overcompensated and so it is a bit bright. As for the tail my wife Jerene also said she thought it looked too long. Since that was in an area I was thinking of changing anyway it was simple enough to shorten it.

One of the first things you notice about Winter Wrens is how dark they are I think I've captured much of that here outside of the bright supercilium. The ideal solution is probably watercolor with its greater ability to render gradations of tone. Eventually I might print another small edition of this that I will then color with watercolor.

The print by the way is 7x9 inches, with the image itself being just 4x6. It's printed with Gamblin oil-based ink(a combination of red and black) on Rives Lightweight paper. Most of these will be used as holiday greeting cards, but a few are now up for sale on Etsy. Because the ink is still wet I won't be able to ship them for a few days.