A piece of this block has come up short. I had hoped to continue the background of the image into the corner. One could re-think the image and taper it away from the problem, or perhaps manufacture a piece of wood to fill the space. The fashioning a piece of wood square with the larger block and precisely the same height presents problems. Something to think about…
A drawn-upon proof of the two key blocks. The corner in question is the lower right. You can just make out the drawn line of the original idea for the boundary of the water.
There are the two mussel colors already printed. The shells on the left have been printed twice with a reduction cut between printings. The shell on the right is older and lacks the depth of color that the younger shells possess, so it was spared the reduction cut. The blue sky block is cut and proofed, but has yet to be printed.
The background block with the two key blocks and the sky block proofed onto it, and with tracing vellum in place for drawn lines to be burnished onto the block. The problem corner is on the lower left, just visible through the vellum.
You can see the printed impression of the blue block, some graphite line burnished off the tracing vellum, and the top edge of one of the key blocks: all essential reference for the cutting of the background block.
Meanwhile the polar vortex has plunged again: perfect engraving weather. I’ve begun cutting the background block with plenty of time to consider what to do about my little problem…