Christmas is Coming

This time of the year is always busy, with the end of the semester and related grading, and all the usual things that need to get done around the holidays. My list always includes making my annual woodcut Christmas card. The past two years we had major snowstorms right around Christmas Day that made it difficult to get it done, mostly because I literally couldn't get to the Studio to work on them.

Although the forecasts for this week are generally favorable, I was hoping to be a bit better prepared this time around. I prepared a new piece of plywood last weekend. This past Tuesday I stopped at a Michael's near my work and picked up a couple of sheets of heavy paper suitable for the task of making cards. By yesterday morning I had narrowed my choices for the artwork to base this year's card on to two very different paintings, and last night I picked the one (which will remain secret until Sunday) and started doing the pencil sketch on the block at my kitchen table.

After work today I took care of an errand, then drove to the Studio. I fixed up the pencil sketch a bit, then started cutting. The cards are not large, about 3" x 6", so it took only about an hour to cut the whole thing. Next, I tore down one of the large sheets of paper into pieces of the right size for the cards. Then I got out some oil based ink (an emergency experiment with water based ink didn't work out last year) and printed a few. I had done 3 when I realized that I was printing them backwards- so that the image was appearing on what would normally be considered the card's back cover. I guess I'll test colors with those. Pulled a few more the right way, then cleaned up and went home. I still need to do a larger production run soon, but I have enough proofs that I'll have at least one good one to post here on the blog on Christmas.