Studio blog of Annie Bissett, an artist working with traditional Japanese woodblock printing (moku hanga)
14 October 2005
Same Moon - Block 2
With the second block added you can see that this is a mosque. I printed the yellow and then cut away some more of the block to define the area I wanted to print in orange.
I agree, this print is looking really KEWL, but the paper is letting you down. I have never had a print misbehave like this one. Pale colours are more forgiving if registration problems arise.
Annie -- could just be the photo, but it appears that you are really hitting the baren HARD (paper appears so deeply embossed)... When you use the baren, try to be sensitive to the amount of printing block under the baren -- heavier hand (and stronger or coarser baren) for large flat areas of color, lighter hand (and finer or smoother baren) for tiny areas and thin lines... I like the wet goma-zuri in the pale blue -- you can enhance the effect by using a lighter touch with the baren while printing. If you get the 'right' amount of moisture, pigment, and paste brushed out properly on the block, it really doesn't take a huge amount of pressure on the baren to print smoothly. When you overprint areas already printed, you can get beautiful (or ugly, depending) effects from this sort of embossing by heavy printing pressure. Keep it up -- you're making some wonderful prints!
3 comments:
This is really looking kewl. The colors are so bright. And you're doing a reduction print as well. 8-] It's scary to carve parts of the image away.
Hi Annie,
I agree, this print is looking really KEWL, but the paper is letting you down. I have never had a print misbehave like this one. Pale colours are more forgiving if registration problems arise.
Annie -- could just be the photo, but it appears that you are really hitting the baren HARD (paper appears so deeply embossed)... When you use the baren, try to be sensitive to the amount of printing block under the baren -- heavier hand (and stronger or coarser baren) for large flat areas of color, lighter hand (and finer or smoother baren) for tiny areas and thin lines... I like the wet goma-zuri in the pale blue -- you can enhance the effect by using a lighter touch with the baren while printing. If you get the 'right' amount of moisture, pigment, and paste brushed out properly on the block, it really doesn't take a huge amount of pressure on the baren to print smoothly. When you overprint areas already printed, you can get beautiful (or ugly, depending) effects from this sort of embossing by heavy printing pressure. Keep it up -- you're making some wonderful prints!
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