Belmar Woodcut Class part 2

Back on Saturday I had originally planned to drive up to Shrewsbury to pick up a few art supplies that might come in to play for tonight's woodcut workshop in Belmar, but I decided not to take any long drives in that weather, a rain/sleet mix with snow moving into the area. I had considered making a stop there (just a short detour off the parkway) yesterday on my way home from work, but I decided to skip it and get home a little earlier on Halloween. So today, after working here in Monmouth county, I took a trip to the store and bought an assortment of water based relief ink and heavy print papers. After that, home just long enough to eat, change clothes, and load up the car for tonight's class.

My two students arrived with mostly completed drawings on the blocks that they prepared last week. In each case I discussed with the artist what they wanted to do, and gave them advice as to how to proceed. Linda is looking to try a multiple block process to produce a color image of a woods scene, so we worked on deciding what parts of her image would appear on which block. Meanwhile Kim was going with a straight black and white self portrait woodcut, so my advice to her was mostly suggestions to make adjustments to her composition that would play to the strengths of the medium of woodcut. I left most of the print collection at home this week, but I did bring my new woodcut tools and they were put to work before long. I did a safety demonstration, as well as discussing how to best use the tools to cut the block. They were both busy after that.

No one finished tonight, or even came close, but both artists seemed pleased with the progress made. We're skipping the next few Tuesdays (other scheduled things for me and the Boatworks in those weeks), so maybe when we return the blocks will be ready for a first proofing.