The Landwehr Canal is located just a few blocks north of where I live, and it's a great place to go for a run or eat ice cream on a Sunday afternoon in the summertime.

For this print, I envisioned three colors, a rust-brown for the bricks along the banks, green for the trees and bushes, and black for the shadows and details.

This photo was my starting point:

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 1 - student project

I reversed it and printed it out for doing a carbon-paper transfer to the board.

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 2 - student project

After that, I carved out the white areas and did a proof to check my progress.

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 3 - student project

I used the proof as a guide to identify and cut out two stencils for two areas of color (green and orange-rust) from a heavier cardstock paper.

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 4 - student project

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 5 - student project

Then I stenciled the areas of color on rice paper.

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 6 - student project

My final layer was the black woodblock.

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 7 - student project

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March 23 Update:

Now I've done more work on this, creating new boards that will make up the trees, sky/water and brick wall areas.

Here's a new test image as I move along with this process... you can see that printing with the wood blocks creates so much more texture in the design. Next, I'm going to trim down the tree branches, clean up some of the water areas, and do some work on color harmony.

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 8 - student project

Still more work to do on gettting the carvings just so, but I think my next step will be getting some more harmonious colors.

April 7 Update:

I've been working with watercolor pigments and a rice paste that I've made out of simmered rice flour and water. It provides a nice texture to the pigment and gives it a more watercolor-like effect, although as you can see in the image here, I need to use more water during printing, especially in the blue sections.

I also need to do some clean-up on the rusty orange plate (especially where it meets the green areas of foliage) and rescue the swans, which are falling into the darkness of the black plate.

I think I will also try a print with yellow instead of blue sky... it might make a nice sunset/sunrise scene.

More to come!

Berlin Landwehr Canal Woodcut (in progress) - image 9 - student project

Leitha Matz

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