An example of using extender to ink up a transparent sky and a solid landscape

Here I am working on a sunset where I want a delicate translucent sky with a dark landscape. I’m working in oil based relief inks from Intaglio and Hawthorn and using Intaglio’s extender. I have mixed the orange/yellow sunset colours with about 60% extender. I’ve then rolled out and taken time to really work over the block with the roller to spread ink evenly without adding any more ink to my original roller-load. I wanted a very scanty application of very thin ink. In the second image you can see the grey ink for the cloud shadows on the mixing slab. This is about 90% extender and at that mix, it is essential to work the roller over the block really well to flatten out and even up the application. In contrast you can see the extender-free ink for the land (which needs to be solid in contrast). The remaining two shots show the contrast between transparency and solidity in the incomplete print. I’ve also used cobalt driers with all the ink.