Construction lines, second version

 At the start of last week's class I hadn't got very far with "construction lines", my second attempt at the concept. The lines are the grid of compass circles and certain points joined with straight lines, from which the shapes used in geometric patterns emerge. Previously I also printed the shapes and collaged them onto the printed lines. 

The blocks have been printed, and even juxtaposed, but I wasn't at all happy with the combination.

And they're a bit minimal, dull on their own -

Here's the sum total of work so far -

In class I printed both blocks with Payne's Grey and cobalt turquoise -

To be continued...

This rubbing, taken weeks ago, is to my mind the best outcome so far, and I'd almost be happt to leave it at that, or try a few versions of rubbings, rather than carry on with proper printing -

Woodblock prints: Construction Lines series 1

 A project in Spring term 2022, based on the compass and ruler lines that are used to start geometrical construction of patterns.

Working out the grids (and deciding which to use) -

Rubbings and printing -

At some point before cutting I randomly jettisoned some of the curved grid lines and felt much happier about how things were going - more open, more interesting, more accidental and surprising. A bit of experimentation with layout of cut star shapes and another block was ready to cut and print with sumi ink onto the watercolour backgrounds.

In fact the stars originated from a cutout grid; I debated whether to print the "net" or the stars and had to make a mockup to decide. On the print, you can see the altered grid of circles; on one side, almost all the lines are left, forming a sort of border, over which I sometimes printed diagonal lines -

"Warming up the board" on newsprint, and adding some leftover stars; just playing...

Three of the finished prints, the coloured stars cut out and glued on -

More finished prints ...

... and my favourites -

Woodblock Wednesday - finally, a consortium of octopuses

Second layer on these -

 ... for a grand total of nine -

 ... and these, either finished or just the one layer printed, belatedly -

Deciding what colour to use for each took quite a while. I wrote the colour on the back of the print and put them in the damp pack.

The block had been cut back to make little holes in the suckers. Printing went smoothly. These are on paper from a hosho pad -

 and these are on other papers, which take the "ink" much better -

 The eyes were carefully tipped in as a separate layer -

I hope you can see the effect for the little holes in the suckers.

Done and dusted? Maybe. So, on to the next....

During the week I remembered seeing a print ... somewhere ... with narrow areas of colours around the edge of a circle, white (unprinted) interior and black (ink?) background, or perhaps foreground. I wondered if the layers of colour (from overprinting the colour blocks) would make a dark enough background, or if a layer of black would be needed.

 Experiments -

 Overlap (a slightly Turneresque quality?) -

To be continued...

Woodblock Wednesday - the octopus

Two weeks ago I took home this jolly octopus drawn by a child who was soliciting donations for the NHS - you got to choose a picture when you donated - how could I resist! Suddenly it seemed a good idea to use it for a woodcut -

Having traced it down "wrong way round" I started again -

 and started cutting -

 Ready to print the first layer, but what colours to use? I tried out a few combinations, in watercolours -

This rubbing of the block, with paint added, made me wonder whether it shouldn't have been left "wrong way round" -

 A couple more attempts, with accoutrements -

an octopus's garden...

"must check my map, it should be here somewhere"

 First prints -

 More prints -

13 in all, most on paper from a hosho pad, with inevitably grainy results, whereas the other papers gave a good print.

This will be a reduction print of three or four layers. First, cut out the spots on the body.

 A couple more prints, with white spots -

 Adding a second layer, yellow over yellow and over blue -

 Still trying out colour combinations -

 Adding red, and a purplish blue -

The next layer(s) will make a difference. Of some sort!

Woodblock Wednesday

Different textures of wood shavings

Cutting an A4 sized "sheet" of travel lines ... "just because" ...

Enlarging the middle layer of the Water block - after taking a rubbing and tracing it down onto the bottom layer, to see where more of that layer might show through, I gave up being systematic and simply pared round the edges of all the little cut-outs. Will it work, hmm....

One of the printing problems has been alignment - I'll cut strips without borders and see if that helps. I'm ready to abandon this particular project but am tenacious enough to want to get it to "work" first!

Woodblock Wednesday - small Waders is done

During the week I wondered whether to carry on with the Waders - a larger block is traced out and ready for cutting -

I learned a bit about making the reflections look watery, and would like to try with larger birds - this is a detail of the screenshot of the inspirational photo -

Putting that decision aside till the small prints were done, here's the two layer print, not very promising -

 Various rubbings as the block was cut back ever more -

The printing task for the morning - half a dozen postcards and half a dozen prints -

 Oh my what a difference that final layer made!

Two prints, showing variability

 ... as you can see from a "before" (below) and an "after" (top) -

 Results -

Finito!

The worst and the best - spot the difference -