I found this tiny metal windup taxi in a toy shop while on vacation in Rome, Italy. It was previously owned and had a little wear on the ends. I like the characters in the windows and the colors. The taxi is small enough to fit inside my closed hand.
I love gradients and I enjoy using blended ink rolls. I wanted to capture the metal surface of the car and key in this way and am happy with the results. I used a small electric drill for the first time, to create the patterned texture of the tablecloth.
I enjoyed working on this, but it was a marathon, with many breaks and interruptions. It was a challenge to concentrate and focus on the demanding process and to trouble-shoot through this project, especially with everything else going crazy in life around us.
Decisions had to be made initially, of what to carve on which linoleum block, and what order of colors to print. Eventually, I decided it was best to break up the color layers into more printing sessions than I originally thought, printing smaller areas — which made the inking less complicated but slower — taking more time. I needed to be continually carving ahead on the future layers and testing those shapes and colors as well.