Somehow, amid the hours spent working on the sketch show, I found time to finish my first ever woodcut relief print for my printmaking class. I’ve never done something like this before, so I took a bunch of photos throughout my process. Here’s a look at how it works!
The theme we were given was “land,” a pretty broad topic. I thought of the desert, which made me think of rock-hunting with my dad, which made me think of geodes, which made me think of crystals. I’ve always been fascinated with crystals and their formation, so I did a little visual research and came across some cool images. Thus, my preliminary drawing was born!
Once I had transferred my image to my block, it was time to start carving using these neat (and SHARP) little tools. I definitely slipped and stabbed myself more than once. This was a reduction relief print, so the first part carved away was what I wanted to stay completely white.
Once I’d finished carving, it was time to mix colors and ink it! I decided to do what’s called a “rainbow roll,” essentially creating a gradient with multiple values by blending inks and applying them very uniformly.
We had the choice to print either using the press or by hand. I trusted my hand a little better in getting these values to come through and had better results in my proofs, so I stuck with printing by hand.
Once I had completely printed my first run, that is, my first color(s), it was time to do more carving for my second run! This time I carved away what I wanted to stay part of the purple gradient, leaving only the bits that were supposed to be a different color.
And finally, here’s what my finished 11.5×8.5 print on Japanese Kitakata paper looked like!
I was pretty happy with how this turned out, but registration (making sure the colors lined up with where they were supposed to print) was a huge pain. I even submitted it to Crosscurrents, the literary art magazine here on campus! Here’s hoping it makes it in!