'mi casa es su casa'

he's the initial sketch for the next print. will need to work on the anatomy of the human a bit methinks.... standby for developments...

El Squid

anyway, here's the resulting image...

once around the woodblock...

as promised, some pictures of my new woodcut (this is not a woodblock and, yes, there is a distinction which im not going into cos thats what wikipedia is for!)

i didn't photograph the printing stage 'cos i got in the zone and forgot. or just forgot anyway. as you can see, my lines are pretty chunky and, in places a little shakey. ive got serious respect for those japanese block cutters; they can carve lines more delicate and controlled than i can draw. ill post an example of what i mean...

i think this is Ando Hiroshige, which means that he is the artist who painted the original image and probably

not the artist responsible for the carving or printing who would have been two other individuals; the unsung heros of this art-form in my opinion. regardless, pimpin' i think you'll agree?

anyway, i digress as i said i'm not even woodblock printing so it would be unfair to compare, fortunately for me!

clearing out the image....

...and remember kids, Never cut towards yourself, especially not your exposed eyeball(unless you really need to...)

SPERM

WoodBlock Party

here's one of the better prints from the weekend. Unfourtunately we were a little pushed for printing time which was a real shame because, therapeutic and fun as cutting is, the printing is where the creativity and experimentation comes in. Never mind. i had a great time and learned alot about the process considering it was a weekend course. i can highly recommend the DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts) to anyone looking to do short creative courses which provide excellent facilities, good tuition and great value. £65 for the two days, 11-6. not bad.

my motivation for looking into woodblock, apart from being a bit of a japanophile, was to reduce my non bio-degradable waste as i do alot of lino printing and the piles of bin-bound cuttings was starting to get me down. woodblock printing can be alot more versatile than relief methods too. Looks like ive opened up another can of worms anyway.

already onto the next print. pictures to follow..... (this time i will snap some of the process involved, wood block masters; go easy, im green)

this is a sketch of the image im going to use this weekend for a two day japanese woodblock printing course im attending.

i spent ages trying to come up with an image which emulated the old prints of famous Kabuki actors all made up. i think on reflection that it was a little too contrived and thats why i wasn't feeling it. so i ditched that and had some fun with this fella. he took minutes to design compaired with the fruitless hours of the previous attempt. evidence that its important to 'keep it real' and 'don't try to be something you're not' cheesy, but worth bearing in mind.

ill post up the results of this weekend and some pictures of the process. standby loyal follower.