Woodblock Wednesday

Week 2 of the advanced course included my talk on the Chinese woodblock printing course I attended in the summer, and most of the rest of the session touched the tip of the metaphorical iceberg that is bokashi.

The sun was shining brightly.

We tried the method recommended in Laura Boswell's book - use a paintbrush to apply a streak of colour, dab on some dots of nori, use a brush on an angle to mix in the nori, then hold the brush straight and make little circles to get the gradation.

Cobalt blue on a ground of Davy's grey

Further attempts at bokashi on a ground

That sunset-sky look ... or maybe not!

 Carol talked about Helen Frankenthaler's woodblock prints, some made in collaboration with master printer Kenneth Tyler and carver Yasuyuki Shibata, and some using dyed paper pulp, most of them fraught with technical difficulties

For example, Madam Butterfly (2000), which looks spontaneous but took three years, is over two metres long; it used 102 colours, printed from forty-six woodblocks, in a work spanning three panels of paper -

(via)

To work at this scale, she had a secret ingredient -

The wetting agent is mixed into the paint; it breaks up the surface and increases the spreading and penetrating properties of the liquid colour.

Dots of nori between dots of paint+wetting agent

Result!

Finally, a glimpse of one of my tool rolls full of tools. Actually it's now Val's tool roll, ready for action. I wonder what she put in the pocket....