Illustration Friday

'Odd-eyed cat' Lino print©Caroline Soer 2011

It's been months since I took part in Illustration Friday! This week's theme is 'imperfect'. I got out my lino cutters yesterday and quickly rolled off a rather imperfect lino print of an odd-eyed cat.

Owl Print - GIVEWAY WINNER!!!

It's Sunday evening and I've asked my other half Jan to pull out a winner from the beautiful bowl HE crafted from Selangor Pewter!!

And.... the winner is.................

ERIC BARCLAY!!!!

Congratulations Eric, I'm delighted that ' Ice Owl'

'Ice Owl' ©Caroline Soer 2011

will be heading off to such a good home! Eric, please email or facebook me with your home address so that I can get your print posted asap!!

More owls will be making their way this week to my Etsy shop here

'Sunset Owl ' Caroline Soer 2011

'Smokey Owl' ©Caroline Soer 2011

'Winter Owl' ©Caroline Soer 2011



Thank you so much everyone for entering my giveaway!

New owl prints and a Giveaway!

I decided to have another play with my owl lino print (the one in my header) and had fun printing onto different grounds such as watercolour, handmade papers, and brown paper bags. I then took a few a bit further with collage.

'Viewpoints' linoprint with collage © Caroline Soer

Here's one I made by printing onto a flimsy paper with a holey pattern. It's difficult to see here, but you can probably spot it in the centre of the 2nd photo above. This allowed the background map to show through a little - clicking the photo to enlarge will help! I added more torn papers for trees and finally some printed words.

Soon there was quite a flock - this is my owl portfolio!

And then the family grew a little larger when I decided to scan the smaller lino prints into my computer and print them out on watercolour paper.

'Ice owl' print © Caroline Soer

'Storm Owl' print © Caroline Soer

'Woodland Owl' print © Caroline Soer

I think they look quite smart in a simple black frame ( the prints measure 20 x 25 cms or 8" x 10" so easily fit into a standard frame). The first 5 will be flying into my Etsy shop this week but before that I'm going to GIVE AWAY one here on my blog!!

So, if you'd like a chance of winning one of these prints please leave me a comment to say which one of the 3 prints,' Ice Owl', 'Woodland Owl' or 'Storm Owl' you prefer. Everyone is welcome to join in - regular commenters, occasional followers and new visitors alike! I'll draw the winning name on Sunday and then I'll print your favourite owl on Fabriano watercolour paper. Your owl print will be signed and then packaged carefully, ready to make its journey to you where you can pop it into a frame!

Good luck!

Another page for a travelling art book

Here's a page for Lisa's book - the last in her travelling book before it flies back to her! Knowing that Lisa is a nature lover I decided on a wild flower/plants theme and made this page with a lino cut printed onto some lovely delicate, lacy/spiderweb-like paper which I applied to coloured Japanese papers. I have to say I struggled a bit with the cutting of this design - lots of curves and zigzags here - and slipped with the tool to decapitate a poor little snail in the process :( Hence the addition of an origami butterfly to fill the gap left by my carelessness! Hope you like the print Lisa!

Too wit, too woo, x two

'Owl II ' - Collage


This week I've been making more collages with the relief prints I made from a lino cut of an owl. This one has quite a wintery feel. I used mount board with texture paste as a base for the papers. The owl was printed on thin rice paper.

'Owl III' - Collage

I really must try to find more descriptive titles! This owl has been printed on what I like to call 'speckled- egg' paper. I've teamed it with printed papers that have arabic script and patterns from a little catalogue of Islamic artifacts that I've had for several years, just waiting for the right project!

I'm really enjoying making this series - I might make some prints of these later. If you're interested, you can find 'Owl I' here.

Travelling Books page

Here's another page for one of the ArtySoulSisters Travelling Books . This one if for Soulbrush - hope you like it Joss! The book has taken on a 'flying' theme and my contribution features a collage created from a relief print of an owl I made from a linocut, on handmade paper which was then applied to coloured japanese papers. The second half of the page is similar paper stamped with a feather I carved from an eraser, plus other papers from my stash!