My current printing project is a three color print of a pair of flamingos. I got the idea for this print from a photograph that I took at the Atlanta Zoo. 

I don’t know if anyone is going to be interested in this bird, but when I saw this photograph I fell in love. This is not the bright pink plastic kitsch on your neighbor’s front lawn. These creatures are so much more than that. They have crazy habits like tucking one foot under their bodies when they stand. Their coloring comes from the tiny shrimp that they eat in the wild. While there are no species listed under the Endangered Species Act, flamingos are becoming rarer. This is the bird I am trying to capture in my new print (a drawing is shown below):

I have never done a three color print before, so it is going to be an adventure. I am going to have a black line block, a pink block for the birds, and a blue block for the water. I found this new water-based ink called Akua that I am going to try because I want to get a specific effect with the blue. I want to give a gradient to the blue so that it looks like it is fading from the blue of the water to the blue of the sky. I hope I can get it to work the way I envision it.