Woodblcok Wednesday - advanced course, week 2 of 3

This week we concentrated on betazuri - overprinting to get strong colour - and bokashi, the gradation you often see in woodblock prints -

 Some examples of bokashi -

 And some work by Tuula Moilanen, who uses both these techniques -

We diluted the nori to a stiffer consistency - "pointy" - rather than a rounded drop that fell off the end of the stir-stick -

Drops of nori were put down over the area, and paint (also quite thick) was put down between the drops -

 Mixing happened on the wood -

 ... and the first application doesn't give even coverage -

 so the inking process was repeated -

 The rubbing starts with circular motions and then in lines following the grain -

... then the print goes back in the damp pack while the block is inked up as before (ie, twice) and printed again -

This gives an intense, flat colour.

Next, the bokashi - drops of nori alternating with blobs of paint in a line -

They are mixed with small circular movements of the brush and then stroked along the line. A clean, damp brush is used at the top of the area, to integrate it with the base colour -

My first printing (messy!) -

 and overprinting -

 A second attempt - I liked the bit of "snow" at the top, and the swirly lines. (The dense paint seems to hold the movement of the baren, or brush, or both.) -

Hmm, that deep blue ares isn't quite what I expected with the clean damp brush when doing the bokashi -

Another layer of the blue didn't make much difference -

 Using a wet brush to draw colour from the rest of the block did help, but the bokashi all but disappeared -

Careful inking at the top, though, made for the effect of distance or a light dusting of snow. In reality, the snow pattern on the Golden Ears is quite different. Next week we'll be doing stencils and they could be a way of getting that pattern. 

At the end of the class we marvelled at the workmanship in the woodcuts of Hiroshige  (he was the artist, not responsible for carving or printing) -