2 posts tagged “printmaking”
And here it is...it's just a one-color (black, obviously) print, since this was my first try at woodblock printing.
The wood was a piece my teacher gave me; it's poplar plywood. The wood was kind of splintery, especially once I got through the first layer.
I did order some nice Japanese printing paper (and some special Shina ply for my next attempt) from McClains printmaking supply, who I am very impressed with. I placed my order online at lunch Monday, and had the package the next day.
The steps in making this print, if you're interested, are below. I basically started with a pencil sketch, which I re-drew in pen and then transferred onto the wood block.
Then I carved the wood, which took several days.
Last night, I made the first six prints! I'll make more, probably, but I'm eager to get on to the next one, which will be a multi-color reduction print, like I did with the lino block, but with wood.
Well, it took most of the weekend and Monday evening, but I finished a little class project: a 4-color linocut block print. Here's a little step-by-step tour of the process.
After doing some thumbnails and color studies, I transferred my final drawing onto a 6x8 inch linoleum block. The colors are printed light to dark, with the largest areas printing first. Each color is cut down to print the next color. Because of this, you can never go backwards; the number of prints you make of the first color is the final number you'll have when you're done. Reading about this, I found that the technique is also called "suicide block" printing, which I thought was kind of cool.
Here's the block cut for the first print; just the areas that I wanted to keep white are cut out.
The design is drawn on in waterproof ink, because I'll have to wash the block as I go along. I have the color studies nearby as I carve, to make sure I'm cutting the right areas each time.
This is the first color, printed and hung up to dry. I did a range of yellows and oranges.
Here's the second color, a lavender purplish-blue.
And the third color, a teal green.
For the last color, black, you can see that the block is almost gone; just the black image is left.
In any case, I had a lot of fun doing this project. It's the first in a series of 6, all of which will be about bees. I'll post them here as I complete them!
