Sometimes I’m working on a plate and reach a point where I just get stuck. It’s usually not that I don’t have ideas of what to do, but rather that I can’t decide which of my many ideas I want to follow.
Take, for example, The Little Match Girl. I’ve drawn the block, done a lot of the carving, and have run a test print. Upon seeing it on paper, I realized that there was a large empty-ish area in the center. Is there room for another head? Do I want to add one? Who would it be? There are already three men to two women in the circle, so I thought another woman would be appropriate, and I imagined a young starlet clinging to the man with the cigar. But I don’t really mind the hole in the center, and wasn’t totally certain about what to do. Ta-da! Photoshop to the rescue!
Here is the test print.
And here is my Photoshopped mockup. I cut, pasted, and flipped the head of the woman with the diamond ring, to get the right size head. Then I further cut, pasted, erased and painted to get a different face. Granted, the line weight and feel are different; I didn’t take the time to get it to an exact match with the cut lines, since all I wanted was an idea.
So, now on to finish! I know which way I’m going with this. Stay tuned to find out how this story ends!
