Woodblock Printing, Continued

For the next set of woodblock prints, I started with a sketch I had made some time ago of my two little brothers sitting at the table.

I used the reverse side of the board I had used to carve the other block print for this one. I carved out some negative spaces, making texture and depth decisions partly intuitively, partly thinking about how it would look when reversed and printed.

The great thing about this type of printing is the guided loss of control. I have a certain amount control over the carved  image, but not in the same way I have control over a drawing. Then, once I begin printing, I have little control over how exact the image plays out. I have a general control over how thick I put the ink or paint on the block print, but once I pull the paper off the block, I am always pleasantly surprised by how the print turned out. It's a nice dynamic between specific, static marks carved into wood, and a complete dependence on how materials react when mushed together. It's a nice study in letting go, and letting the materials do the work for me. Also I still get to make color decisions, with a similar attitude. Here are the full set of sixteen woodblock prints, all around 5"x7", acrylic or ink on 140lb. watercolor paper:

Woodblock Printing

I've been doing some woodcarving this summer (on commission), and from that got inspired to carve out a board and do a woodblock on my own time, which I got quite carried away with. So I took the board out to the garden and brought out a drawing of mine to work from as well, and made a woodblock carving. I find there's a great energy in gardens, a lot of vitality, and it's a peaceful place to get in a relaxed state of mind. I find the amount of different patterns among different vegetation a challenge to piece together and sort out or abbreviate in a drawing or painting. I have been reading a book on Matisse and it mentions his affinity for and interest in patterns. So with that in mind, I made a set of twelve woodblock prints on various types of paper with acrylic paint and ink. The colored paper is from a set of grainy charcoal papers, and the bright white paper is 140lb watercolor paper. I experimented with combining the colors, layering them on top of each other, and getting different effects with the amount of medium and the residual medium on top of the different papers. I'm a fairly inexperienced print-maker, but it certainly made me think about color in a different way, laying it down all at once and relinquishing control. Here's a few of the results in no particular order. Enjoy.