the frog - revisited

the green frog
reduction linocut by Teresa Newham

As soon as I'd finished printing The Golden Frog, I knew I wanted to have another go at the subject.  I started planning it out during our last Herts Open Studios session - trying to make the markings more - well - frog-like, and eliminating some of the problems I'd encountered previously.

working out the design
© Teresa Newham

My stickiest issue was the background - I discarded the idea of leaves and tried boulders and pebbles, but I couldn't get it right.  Until one of our Open Studios visitors, browsing our charity bookstall, said: "Oh look, there are some frogs here, on lily pads".  So a glance at my own book would have given me the answer!

getting the first colour right . . .  or not!
© Teresa Newham

Once the white was cut I set out to print the first yellow layer.  That's right - yellow.  Except it didn't work out like that, because I mixed this lime green colour first, and fell in love with it.  The prints sat for a week on my clothes airer drying rack until I found time to move on.

first colour, printed & drying
© Teresa Newham

The next plate had to be a mid-green.  I hoped it would work, and tried to build some texture into the print when I cut the leaves out.  Because I was transferring the design plate by plate using a pencil, I kept getting confused, and was pretty apprehensive when I came to do the actual printing.

now for the second colour . . . .
© Teresa Newham

I needn't have worried - the two colours printed together worked well.  The markings were there, the white outline was there (on most of them anyway), and even on the odd print where the registration was slightly out, it didn't seem to matter.

. . . which looked encouraging!
© Teresa Newham

I repeated the process for the next (and what turned out to be final) colour - brown. I'd originally intended to print black onto the water and the pupil of the eye, but came to the conclusion I didn't need to - the brown and green are fine as they are.  So glad I had another go at this little fella!

the final print
© Teresa Newham