Japanese Woodblock Printing Week: Designing, drawing and cutting

 Day one (Monday)  of Japanese Woodblock ( Mokuhanga) print course at Morley College  with Carol Wilhide-Justin  started with an introduction to it's history and a fascinating account of her  scholarship residency  at MI-Lab in Japan.

 She had  bought an original book from 1830's and it was wonderful to gently handle it,  admiring the  qualities of  the papers and the printing .

Working on a 30 x 22.5cm piece of  Shina Plywood  with an image size of 15 x 10.5 cm ( which allowed 2 separations on each side) , she shared some ideas from her own work  showing how to break down an image into  separate layers ( by colour or to make a pattern simpler to cut) . I liked the idea of combining different shapes and colours ( above and the results below)

But I'd already put quite a lot of work into  developing ideas continuing with my breakwaters theme so despite working on a much smaller scale than  I'd imagined , I decided to combine different elements from  these 2 photos

Having made an accurately sized drawing , this was traced and different colours used for what would be different blocks/ colour separations.

Then  reversing it, these 4 different element were  traced onto the  plywood using carbon paper, paying attention to the direction of the grain. 

The plywood had already been accurately marked out with the area for the image, surrounded on 2 sides with a 1cm gutter and 1cm registration for the paper ( the paper will overhang the edge when printing, a cunning way of getting the most out of the block)  

Then cutting! We used a non-slip mat rather than a bench-hook, much more maneuverable , especially as we had to continually move the block around to ensure cutting away from you. I was first to have a go with the Ken-toh chisel to make registration marks on the corner and along the longest side, watched by the class demonstrating  how not to do it!  My 4th one wasn't too bad.

A set of tools were issued once we'd demonstrated that we could use them. And then the lesson was over and our homework  is to do all the cutting on our blocks for printing on Friday ( this is usually a 8 week rather than 2 day course! )  

On Tuesday , appropriately enough, I went back to the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum  so I didn't get a chance to do any cutting until Wednesday and Thursday. My orders of 'Powergrip' tools and   Japanese Woodblock  book had arrived in the post , it was good to have  photos and instructions on the very particular ways the different tools are used , a reminder of what Carol had demonstrated.

 So here are my finished blocks ready for printing tomorrow .  I love the nuanced effects of the watercolour used  and that it can be done at home  without a press, something I've struggled with when lino printing.

I think my dad would have been proud of me -  he was very keen on working with wood  coming from a long line of wood carvers from coopers in the 1700's to my grandfather who was a  pattern maker on the Glasgow shipyards before becoming a gardener.

30 years of wielding a scalpel probably helped too!  

UPDATE - see  what my  friend Margaret did on the same course - a different approach to design  but very effective.

Printmaking 2, Develop your Drawing 1

 A bit of a frustrating morning trying to track down among my packed up studio contents, where I'd put the notes, sketchbooks and materials from previous weeks  printmaking class. I also spent some time selecting images  that might work well for lino cutting this week.  So I should have been a bit miffed that when I arrived at class,  that the tutor  set me and a couple of others doing collagraphs instead . I was delighted  however  as although I was  prepared to do lino again, I  had specifically expressed an interest in  this technique.  Had a fine time  with torn bits of masking tape, scrim, foil, tissue and lots of PVA ( my fingers were very sticky by the end of it). Photos above  and below are  before applying the shellac, based on a  sketch and  photo I had with me of Fleet  mudflats . They should be nicely dry for the next session in 2 weeks time, can't wait to see the results once inked up.

 

In the afternoon I'd had the first of ' develop your drawing' session,   a popular class because  of its experimental approach , there were 15 of us with a variety of backgrounds and  levels of experience.
This first session was devoted to mark- making mainly with charcoal and ink . My easel was already liberally coated with charcoal dust ( and I'd come prepared dressed in black t shirt and jeans)  so I got stuck in with gusto. We folded a large sheet  of paper into 16 and did  studies of  a variety of items, concentrating on trying to express their texture while making each study  as different as possible in terms of marks. We stopped regularly  to turn the easels round and look at each others work. Amazing variety  but also could soon see the development of peoples specific 'handwriting' and vocabulary. There were several sculptors  and  their style was quite distinctive in building up of form. The feeling of landscape was  picked up  from my work, perhaps because most of the objects I chose were organic

ceramic  pitted jar -  rubbed charcoal with eraser

bone - charcoal

wooden spoon  - charcoal, white chalk and eraser

wooden spoon - pencil

resin block - charcoal

Wood - ink

Wood - ink, white chalk

Printmaking Week 1

Week 1 of  10 week printmaking course on Monday evenings at City Lit - from next week I'll be doing drawing in the afternoon too.

 After  general introduction and induction and brief discussion   with tutor on previous experience and what you wanted out of  the course  it was time to play with scraps of aluminium and a selection of  drypoint intaglio tools. I particularly liked the ' roulette'  and a dressmakers marking wheel.

 Then inking up , preparing paper and running it through the press. I'd forgotten quite how messy it was and what a good workout  turning the handle on the press is!

 The marks on this scrap of plate  were initially  a bit insipid,  enjoyed scribbling with a large nail.

I booked this course a while ago - while I'm not as far along with packing as  initially planned ( tho over 5 days Ian and I packed 53 boxes, mainly books,  and dismantled a wardrobe and 2 bookshelves ) , it does the trick in terms of  having some creative time without having to think too much ! Next week lino cutting which I have done before but good to have a refresher.

Drawing from the Masters - Sustained Drawing

 

I'm sorry to have finished my City Lit drawing course at the National Gallery, I learnt such a lot in 5 weeks. For this  last session there was no tour beforehand and a different tutor with a more abstract  approach which was refreshing. I got there early to have a look round to choose my victim painting to draw from. I whittled down my short list - some were much smaller in real life, others had poor light or  lacked  a good position to draw from. It was  very busy with events going on so that also had an impact as did rooms that were very busy ( I don't mind sketching in public but there are limits.....)

 Continuing my cloth theme  I  chose  ' Mary Magdalene' by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo.

 

The time went so quickly tho' I did go for a coffee break  and my ideas about working in a more abstract, simplified  way went out of the window as I concentrated on analysing and trying to capture accurately the folds in the fabric. We  met in Central Hall to look at each others work rather earlier than in previous weeks - at  8.30 instead of  8.45. This had pro's and con's. On the plus side it was great to have more time to appreciate the varied styles  and to see the journey for all of us from our first works. In  previous weeks we've been asked to comment only on our own work and experience with  a summing up by the  tutor ( competing with  insistent remarks from the stewards that the gallery was now closed!)  This week we were asked to comment on other peoples which  we weren't used to - I  found positive things to say  but not everyone did -  one person  was  unnecessarily harsh, she'd earlier made  unwelcome suggestions about how I could 'improve' my drawing.  

 

In general though it was a nice group of people. Being spread through the gallery, concentrating on our own drawings, there wasn't the same interaction as in other classes but I enjoyed chatting with Catherine who  was like minded in needing a coffee before each  session started  and also in admiring the work of  Gerhardt Richter.  

 

So what were the 'learning outcomes ' for  me?

- a new appreciation of 'traditional' figurative paintings

- increased skills in observation 

- a better understanding of composition

- improvement in drawing techniques

- confidence to draw in museums and galleries

- finding time for art, the realisation that I could fit in classes after work, not just at weekends.

- that sustained drawing is sustaining!!

 

Most of all I've fallen back in love with pencil! For the last 30+ years my drawing has been rather cursory as I want to get to colour as quickly as possible. Now I want to explore  drawing further for it's own sake. I'm investigating life classes for the New Year but in the mean time bought a wooden hand at the National Gallery Shop ( even if it does look like 'Thing' from the Addams Family). The hands were what I noticed most in many paintings and I have ideas to incorporate drawings with the prints I produced in the British Museum lino printing course into my Sketchbook  2013 Project.  



Revolutionary Printmaking

A very satisfying day spent at the British Museum on a printmaking workshop linked to the 'Revolution in Paper' Exhibition of Mexican prints.
We first spent half an hour looking around the exhibition which is a mixture of lithographs, linoprints and woodcuts. I was taken with the way Leopoldo Mendez portrayed hands so graphically (above)
Back in the studio below the Great Court, we transferred our sketches ( I drew round my hand!) onto Gerflor vinyl floor tiles and then used linocutting tools to carve and gouge.
After lunch we started printing- the tutors from the Curwen Print Study Centre had brought along a couple of presses which gave excellent results.
My favourite was this double hand print- a bit tricky to do as it involved cutting a stencil to prevent the background printing and my registration wasn't quite right. Did the job tho' - this is what I was aiming for in the print at the top of this post but the ink was too dense. Even got a 'ghost' print running the plate through a second time.

Evening Class in Drawing

I've been feeling the need to get back to basics in drawing again , having withdrawal symptoms from no painting holiday this year or indeed any holiday I could throw myself into sketching mode. So I've signed up for an evening class held at a local school and best of all it's only 5 minutes walk away! I arrived early and was enchanted by all the school art equipment , especially these rather stained brushes. Being the first session, it took a while to go through all the paperwork (health and safety , learning plans etc ) before launching into our first excercise - drawing shells. Typically I chose the most difficult but isn't it gorgeous!

First of all we had to draw the outline without looking at the paper( lots of hysterical laughter during this!) then we could peek , then it was adding in the contours(but still not taking the pencil off the paper) and finally with shading etc.

My drawings seemed to get bigger as I observed more and it was interesting in the group review at the end of the session to see the different approaches people had. It's a real mixed group in both ability and ethnicity so it looks like it will lead to some interesting sessions

The tutor continually moved round making suggestions for improvement - in my case sharpening my pencil to create a more obvious edge between inner and outer surfaces.

I've also signed up for an on-line lino printing course with Dijanne. I think my first cuts might be based on shells.....