There is a sense of achievement in finalising a long term project. It’s taken a little while to get organised but there are seven new card designs in my shop.
One of the new designs, “Echidna Eclipse” is modelled on my “Echidna Excursion” card which is a direct reproduction of my original square linocut, below. The image never really fitted the the portrait format of the card with the back half of the echidna’s body cropped off, but the card is popular enough.
The impetus to design the new card came from a visitor to my market stall at Warragul early last year. The person was an echidna lover and asked about echidna cards in other colours. I sighed and said “Sorry there is only this one”. However, I loved her idea and suggested she come back in a few weeks time and I would have some new echidna designs for her.
Well, I’m feeling a little embarrassed as to how long that “few weeks” has become, as the new design process went on an excursion of its own.
First the echidna image needed some fiddly graphic work to isolate it from the background. Next I took a few months adding bits of other linocuts to create a landscape setting. After changing the colour palette several times I finally prepared the design ready for colour copying. However, needing some new cards from my commercial printer I decided to wait for that print run… etc etc.. Had I been the client I would have been very annoyed.
Working on one’s own projects comes with dizzying freedom. No-one is paying for your time and the work proceeds without consultation. But when you get busy with client work, your personal projects are the first to be buried beneath the pile on the desk. I think that’s why it feels so satisfying when you actually complete a personal project, no matter how long it takes.
I’m almost certain I’ll be back at the Warragul Arts Market in October but in the meantime the Echidna Eclipse card is available here.
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