Woodcut: Final Result.

Hey guys, remember that woodcut I was semi-griping about? Well, after 8 1/2 hours of cutting, cutting, cutting, proofing, and printing 18 editions, here is the final result...

"Brushes" 2/18, 9.25x12"
Oil ink on Masa rice paper

Half of the editions look like this (as much as it can, considering we don't have a printing press). I'm turning in the other half that has more residual marks on the white table, which looks nice. Tonight I matted an edition. I'm contemplating selling it among other things at the VAS Holiday Sale. Do people really like buying editions, even with only one being matted? How do you package it?

Oh, VAS stands for the Visual Arts Society. It's a nice little club here at Tech that I just recently joined, and I'm excited about being a member. For the holidays they have a craft sale where members can sell their work, so I'm really looking forward to it. It'd be my first professional sales booth thingy. The main problem I'll have is deciding on prices: I always have trouble with that! I don't want to overcharge, but don't want to get duped either.

Well, ideas for my finals are coming along. I just hope they turn out the way I imagine them to be! What are your plans for the next few weeks?

Woodcutting.

Woodcutting is not easy. No, really, it isn't. The first couple of assignments in Printmaking involved cutting linoleum blocks, which wasn't the easiest thing to do per se, but at least linoleum is soft. (Tip: placing the block in contact with heat makes it even softer. I put boiling water in a small tin, covered it with foil, and placed the block face-down on the foil.)

Woodcutting is our weapon of choice now, and it's difficult. The block has to be bigger (minimum 8x10"), and we're using wood (mine's some sort of poplar). The tools have to be continuously sharpened, and they've been used so they aren't in perfect shape (too expensive to purchase on our own). You have to consider carving against the grain, and around knots. I tried my best to purchase blocks that had little to no knots on either side. Even then, it's still arduous, and it's so easy to slip and knick an area. Once it's cut, you can't get it back. The one pictured above is a re-do!! :(

I just like the look of my pen drawing, which is there to simply mark my areas as guidelines. I'm really worried about getting to the details of the metal handles on the brushes... not sure how to go about cutting those correctly.

Any experienced woodcutters out there to lend some helpful tips? :)