Getting sketchy

Here are some of my sketches for the woodblock print that I've been working on (slowly) for probably the last 2 months.  I've probably done about a dozen or so, thumbnails and actual size, but wasn't totally happy with any of the results. (Click to enlarge)

Little doodles

Actual size.  I like the composition but there's no room for the type.

Then after about an hour of complaining to my very patient boyfriend last night, it dawned on me that maybe I needed a different approach.  What was the best way to do that?  Turn the canvas from portrait to landscape.  I had my mind set on creating this long and narrow vertical print, but when I bought the wood, it was much narrower than I had intended.  The type would have fallen into too many short lines.  Since I was also dead set on doing this octopus and I kept coming back to the idea of drifting, a long horizontal canvas worked better to convey that idea of being swept a long.

The thumbnail

Next step is to do an actual size sketch.  I may make some adjustments so the octopus looks more like he's floating than crawling, or switch the octopus and type.  I hope to post the final sketch in the next few days!