Fifth Session of Woodcut Workshop

I got behind on posting my reduction woodcut print class and the student's progress on their prints.  Tonight is the last class, and I'm sure they will be printing madly to finish.

Simone's little chicken, a single color print

Jessica's second color, yellow over blue

Kelly's second color green inked with a mask

 

Larry's second color blue

Laura's second color 

Liddy's second color, hot pink

The first color of Simone's rooster

Sabyl's second color of swirls in light brown

Simone's second color of dark green

Woodcut Class Number Four

The Wednesday night woodcut class is getting well under way. Some students started, or finished up their first colors, and a few printed their second color.

 

Sabyl's first color

Liddy's first color

Debby's second color, a double rainbow roll of two shades of green, over the first yellow color

Simone's second color, pink; inked through a stencil, over the first blue color

I'm excited to see the prints coming together in class, and look forward to next week to see what they print next.

Woodcut Class Number Three

My woodcut class at the Art Students League that I am teaching was busy Thursday night printing the first colors of their reduction woodcut prints.  They were all very ambitious, printing around twenty sheets of paper to make sure they would get enough prints by the end.  Here are some of the prints they have made so far;

 

Sarah's first color-blue (Correction, Simone)

Larry's first color-light tan

Debby's first color-yellow

Jessica's prints of her first color-blue

Reduction Woodcut Printmaking Workshop Number Two

Last night was session number two of my woodcut reduction workshop. Most of the students were still working on their images, and hadn't started carving yet except for Larry. He had a funny story of how he prepared his wood block at home. Before going to bed, he drew the image on to the block with marker and sealed it with some old polycrylic he had. It was thick, and blobby, but he used it anyway. In the morning, the marker drawing had bled, and the polycrylic had run and pooled into one corner which was still wet. Little air bubbles were all over the surface of his block from the sealant. I thought it looked like a collagraph surface, and that he should go with it instead of starting over. In the process of making art, instead of calling it a mistake, it's called a happy accident. Larry wasn't so sure if he was that happy about it, but went ahead and started carving the block, bubbles and all.

Larry and his wood block

Larry's bubbly surfaced wood block that he began to carve

The Reduction Woodcut Workshop is Filled!

My reduction woodcut workshop quickly filled since last week at the Art Students League in Denver. Last night I had eleven students interested in learning this printmaking technique. A few people said they had wanted to take a class from me for years, and were finally able to. It feels good to have people interested in what I do, and want to learn from me.

The first class is a lot of lecture and demonstration, and not much hands on. There is so much information to cover. Reduction woodcut is a printmaking technique that utilizes one woodblock which is carved, and printed repeatedly to print multiple colors. It requires careful planning since previous steps cannot be repeated.

My demo for class

This was a quick demo I put together for the class to demonstrate the steps in a reduction print. From left to right are the stages of this print. First the block was carved to reveal the white of the paper, and printed a light blue. Second, the same block was carved again to preserve the blue areas, and inked a tan color. The tan print by itself is above the two color, blue and tan print. Next, the block is carved a third time, preserving the tan areas, and printed a darker brown. Lastly, the block is carved again, and inked on the inside a dark green, and on the outside edge, a red color. On the right is the block, and the reference photograph.

Next Thursday I will post what the students are working on, and what they've learned so far.