Open Textbook

We had week 2 of the current round of woodcut class at the Boatworks.  These first two weeks have come with a special benefit, the whole Fourth of July up on the wall in the room where it's held.  A few times I have used individual prints to demonstrate approaches to composition and ways to simulate different kinds of objects.  One of today's students referred to it as being like having a printmaking textbook on the wall of the classroom.  There was a whole lot of printmaking I had yet to learn when I made the piece, but it shows all the things I learned in doing 366 prints., which is well over 300 more than my current students have done.  The prints will be down before the 3rd class meeting, so they'll have to be satisfied with my bound photocopy version.

As often happens, my students came in with new already cut blocks which I hadn't seen before, ready to print.  Above, Jill is pulling the first proof of a new woodcut.  She made a few minor cuts to the unprinted block at my suggestion, then printed it.  My photo of the print did not turn out well, but she's planning to do a little more cutting and maybe I'll get a good photo of the improved version.  She also printed an older block done during our break between classes.

Mary has been working on a very detailed image based on a photo of a Boston location, a linocut.  The block looked really good when when proofed it last week, but she wants to add a layer of architecture that will be seen past the large foreground building and behind the overhead trees.  She decided that she wanted to try to create this with a second block.  So since last week she cut a shaped piece of linoleum, and today printed (above) a couple of proofs of this block with a custom mixed blue gray color.  Below is one of the printed pieces.  By next week she will be ready to ry to prit the black over the blue.