Experimentation in woodcut

The first thing I wanted to try in the new space is the woodcut press, it's something I've wanted to dabble with for quite a while but never quite found the time for while I was at university. I'm not sure how, it's not as if I was very busy while I was there.

The nice thing about woodcut in the super easy learning curve, I knocked my first one up in a couple of hours using my dremel multitool thing (thanks Dad). There's a couple of things so consider such as the use of black and white (especially if you're trying to make an image with proper lighting) and working backwards, but if you've any printmaking experience it's relatively simple to get your head around.

The thing is just to spend a little time sketching it out and considering how to separate the image; when you only have one colour, no gradients, and next to no detail things can get tricky, but not impossible. I've been a little obsessed with the PS3 game Journey lately (apologies if I have talked at you about it) so couldn't resist making a bit of tribute art, the medium just felt right for this one, and printing onto leather is oh-so satisfying.

Just to push myself a bit I decided to complicate matters threefold by A) using text and B) making it a two colour print. Registration on woodcut is a nightmare but I think I just about got my head around it (if you have any tips let me know!)

Over all, a resounding success! I think I'll be putting these up online sometime soon, the simpler ones will be unlimited editions, but the more difficult ones with have to be limited runs. Should make nice little table fillers at markets as well I reckon.

Get carving!
Christopher

p.s. apologies for the super crappy photos, a half decent camera is top of my wish list