Inspired by my circa-2004 Holga, I simplified the composition down and re-arranged elements for proportion, made a quick sketch, then drew the final artwork over 36 hours.

I’m excited Big Ink is coming to town again, printing April 5th and 6th at the American Sign Museum. Big Ink specializes in traveling throughout the United States, helping artists print large format woodblock prints.

This will be my fourth Big Ink — and my goal is to create an impactful image that showcases the rich contrast of the dark black with the bright white of the Masa paper.

I’ve been an amateur photographer since I was in high school and 20 years ago I embraced the lo-fi aesthetics of Holgas, Lomo’s, Polaroids, and Super 8mm film in my work.

Sometime around 2004 I was downtown and captured this dynamic angle of the Genius of Water and one of the corner figures framed within the contour of the Carew Tower. I thought the successive and growing negative space of the sky created an interesting shape.

For the adaptation to the woodblock print, I did composition studies where I changed the format from a Holga’s square to a proportion that works when scaling an image to a 9”x 12” and 18” x 24” — proportions that fit popular frame sizes.

While sketching, I used the rule of thirds to align elements, and for the final composition I found it was best to allow the foreground figure to break the edge of the Carew Tower.

My issue with the 2004 Holga photograph that I took, is that the Fountain was facing West at that time and the Genius of Water’s back is to the camera.

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Knowing about Cincinnati history, throughout the 1900s the Fountain was facing East and I was inspired to simulate that angle to create a reference composition. I felt I needed to capture the essence of place and not be constrained by the conventions of a plein air landscape.

“What’s he doing to that goose?” My dog Fuji during a December visit to the Square for reference photography.

My intention with the image was to evolve and hone my ability to capture light with crosshatching as well as the depict sky.

2019 was my first Big Ink at the Cultural Arts Center in Columbus, Ohio. I followed up with a night scene in 2022 at Tiger Lilly Press and my personal best woodblock print “Dawn on the Roebling” in 2024. In 2019 and 2024 I felt I could make progress with my depiction of clouds. Also, I feel I have room to grow with depicting figures in my work and the figures in the fountain provided a challenge to grow.

I am content that I made progress in improving my skill as an illustrator while I do acknowledge that I see areas that if I had more time, I would have preferred to spend more time on.

I worked with Grainwell in Covington, KY to create the 31” x 44” laser-engraved plate.

Due to time constraints, this year I chose to forgo hand-carving my block and to laser-engrave the printing plate. I was intrigued with the idea of reducing my cost of labor in the final edition.

In 2024, this is how I spent time on my 60” x 25” “Dawn on the Roebling Bridge” Big Ink woodblock print:
Image Development/Idea: 2 Hours
Reference Photography: 3 hours
Pre-block illustration: 14 hours
Carving: 82.5 hours

So far in 2025, I have spent more time on image development and the Illustration, but the final result will be an accurate autographic image of the illustration directly on the printing plate:
Image Development/Idea + Reference Photography: 9.5 Hours
Pre-block illustration: 36:20 hours
Preparing Woodblock for printing: TBD, maybe 5-7 hours

Join us for live printing!
The American Sign Museum is located at:
1330 Monmouth Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45225

A composite image created in Photoshop from the best prints from the evening spent in the studio.

I really loved my “View from Devou” monoprint series from 2023. For that series I spend over a month aiming to create my best work.

Unfortunately recently my experiment combining watercolor monoprint painting under a black layer failed, mainly due to lack of time and luck.

I mis-pulled the first print, missing a section in the middle. I wish I just re-pulled at least getting 1 good print.

Perhaps I will get this on press again in the future.

If you’re interested in one of the black-and-white prints I ahev posted them here:
https://www.billiterstudio.com/shop/covington-riverfront-at-dusk-print

Watercolor underlayer on drying rack. On the left is print 1 of 3; perhaps you can see where I missed the middle while pulling the squeegee.

In June of 2022 I started a drawing inspired by one of my favorite views — after hikes and bike rides I love to see the Cincinnati skyline from Devou Park’s overlook.

In June of 2023, I finally got to burn the screens and after another month passing I was able to finally get a block of time in the studio to paint. I expanded my color palette of Procion Dyes I use as a watercolor medium – taking time to re-mix and experiment with test prints (below).

What I love about these watercolor monoprints is the ability to be both loose and free with watercolor but also having the control of painting within a stencil on the screen.

Planning a few more variations while I have this image in the screens. More to come!

Plein Air Study on iPad

Hopefully in the next year I will create a detailed etching of Cincinnati and Covington from the vantage point of Devou Park.

In January I went down to take reference photographs and to make a plain air study to make sure my eye would capture nuances in the moment.

Leap forward to June. Below you can see my progress — I’ve drawn for about 14 hours so far but I still have a lot to go!

I’ve been working on a graphite drawing. Dusting off my pencils and skills after learning a ton in Design Drawing during my first year in design school back in 1996.

Planning to experiment to see how the graphite texture screenprints.

This image was inspired by a 5mile walk last summer with my dog Kona, where we went through Newport and Covington then visited the Square during a Hip Hop concert. I love when downtown is full of people, arts and vibrancy!

I've been developing a new collection of work I'm calling "Queen City Scenes" — inspired by the long tradition of urban landscapes. The work will be into more fine arts than my typical graphic arts, still emphasising but not limited to printmaking.

I’ve been slowly building up some somewhat finalized artwork as well as some rough sketches. I’m experimenting with some scenes with dramatic skies or taking place during the day but I am also attracted to the drama of night scenes as well.

My initial process is inspired by photo journalism — finding reference photography by proactively scouting locations for dramatic and beautiful lighting. This comes rather easy as we go for walks with our family dog Kona and love to explore the riverfront and the parks on the surrounding hills.

“Covington Riverfront at Dusk” work in progress — using ProCreate on the iPad to illustrate an urban landscape. I plan to personally screenprint a 30” x 20” version.

I started work last August during my first visit to Detroit. I really enjoyed evening rides along their river walk then coming back to my hotel and cuddling up with my iPad. Drawing can be so relaxing and I should do more before bedtime.

Not quite finished yet, so far I’ve spent about 15 hours in the image, enjoying the shading.

“View from Devou” work in progress from June. Relaxed on a lovely family vacation to Red River Gorge by drawing a scene in Adobe Fresco on an iPad in the evenings and mornings.

I was inspired to work on a fun watercolor screenprinted monoprint after binge-watching episode of “Painting with John” and watching the watercolor spread.

Hoping to create a watercolor monoprint of this scene in the upcoming months as part of my Queen City Scenes collection

Some of the work-in-progress digital paintings and sketches in my ProCreate app.

Before embarking on this new collection and goal of “12 masterpieces” in 2022 I have been doing some electronic sketches and studies using the iPad and the app Procreate. Above are some of the sketches I have been producing over the winter.

I’ve been trying to get into the practice of documenting scenes and the effects of different times of day and the light, as well as the atmospheric gas affects of the clouds.

I’ve been also trying to get interesting vantage points and views of urban landscapes that might resonate with other people.

Once I build up this collection of subject matter and I plan to start experimenting with a variety of production methods:

- multicolor Serigraphs

- serigraph watercolor monoprints

- polyester lithography

- letterpress, magnesium plates

- woodcuts

- engravings (but need to teach myself)

- acrylic  and oil paintings

- watercolor paintings (maybe studies)

- pen and ink drawings