Capture Your City or Favorite Place in Woodcut

In this class, we're going to create a design and transfer it to a wood block. Decide whether you'd like to use the Japanese or Western printing style.

For the design inspiration, you can consider whatever you want, but because so many traditional woodblock prints show outdoor scenes from cities and nature, I'm going to suggest a scene from a city or landscape you love.

Here are a few examples from great printers of the past:

d8e9cdfc

Fireworks at Ryogoku (Meisho Edo hyakkei: Ryogoku, hanabi) from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1851, Utagawa Hiroshige

f9cd5e93

Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi), No. 58 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857, Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando)

87221f32

Mariko - the Twentyfirst Station, 1857, Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando)

You'll find an amazing collection of Utagawa prints that are searchable online at the Brooklyn Museum: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/search/?q=Utagawa

I also have a Pinterest board with some of my favorite woodcut images here: https://www.pinterest.com/leithamatz/woodblock-printing/

Once you have an idea you like, you can work from a photograph or do a sketch to make your design.

Then you'll transfer the design to the wood, start carving the block, and do a few proofs.

When you're happy with your proofs, you can print to your heart's content (or until you run out of paper and ink).

A completed project will consist of:

Your inspiration or initial design
One or more project proofs
Your final print

Look for the supply list, below, in the attachments area.

I'm looking forward to seeing your project!

Jason Crowe

--

6