Psalm 9: Pushing the medium

How thin can I carve a lino block?



















I'll admit, once I had the idea for this image, I kinda got lost in the execution of the image more than the image itself, which for some reason bothered me for awhile. I really was trying to create an image that got across the idea of praising before the throne while the "enemies" of God are being crushed under the throne itself. Instead, it became, how do I make the sheet music look more it is in the background, but when it intersects with the throne, the musical notes become stronger, as if the throne was increasing and strengthening the sound. I finally found some solace in the fact that we were created to create, and to create well, excellently in fact. So, I found some peace (although before I print this again, I am going to see if I can fix up the number "9" somehow, it does not look right).
Here is the decorative initial :

As you can see, I decided to follow along with the musical
theme.

I decided to go with a more fluid look to the decorative initial
image, because the print was so linear, I felt like the illumination
needed to be a tad more curvy.

That and the fact that I seem to have some facsination with musical
with musical notes and such, maybe because of my Mom. She was fluent
in so many instruments, but when I was a child, she used to play the pipe
organ in a big Catholic Church. I fell asleep every night listening to her
practice and at times she would also play classical music, so even to this
day I will hear a classical piano piece and recognize it as one that my Mom used to play. OK, enough with the Pop Psychology. Here is the illumination:
As you may notice, the words of the Psalm intersect with the illumination. You will see why in a moment. This was so far the most difficult Psalm to to layout as a complete image: print, illumination, text and decorative initial, due to the fact that it is such a long Psalm.
I usually only print 2 or 3 "finished" prints on the larger Goyu paper (trying to save money). Well, I ruined the first finished print by not planning well, the second image by a major mistake in spelling, so I only had ONE print left. So, I spent some time laying this one out, and found that I had to fill some "white zones".
Here is the final image, let me know what you think.