[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Friday, 19 December 1997 Volume 01 : Number 019 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Bull Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 20:13:05 +0900 Subject: [Baren 99] Mind of a printer None of the printers/carvers working in the traditional style here in Japan can handle the sort of discussions in English that fly around on [Baren]. I'm a little bit uncomfortable at being the only conduit for their ideas to be expressed here ... I was thinking about this last weekend with Oushi-san, a craftsman in the traditional style. (It's difficult to spell some of these names in text-based e-mail - it comes out sort of like 'oh oo she') He was quite passionate in his response to some recent postings ... (Quoting what he said is going to get confusing, so from here on I'll just try to use his words directly, and the '>' symbol for quotes from [Baren].) *** *** *** > I want to create a print that is just slightly different > from the last. ... Oh, these artists! They really do have a different view from us of what the word 'printmaker' means. If they want to make each print different, they should _really_ make it different - then put a new title on each one, and consider it to be a separate work! The whole 'raison d'etre' of printmaking is the creation of multiples - of taking an artistic conception, and allowing it to be spread as widely as possible, and to as many people as possible. Think back to the early days of printing, of Gutenberg, etc. Before then, only hand-copied 'original' stuff was available - and only to the very few. When printing was conceived and developed, in Europe, China, Japan, wherever ..., it became possible for huge numbers of people to 'get the message', whatever that message may have been, religious, scientific, trivial, important, artistic, it makes no difference. The basic and fundamental point of printmaking was that it meant the _original_ message could be reproduced in multiple form. Printmaking is thus all about making multiples! Making 100 different originals may be very interesting artistically, but I feel it misses the point of printmaking. If the people buying these works are happy to know that each one is 'original', then I guess that's OK, but it's certainly not the way we see things. > The other factor to consider is that I do not print the > complete edition at one time. Some of this has to do with > cost...actually a lot... and the other is the factor of > monotony. I don't like it ... 'I don't like it?' 'Monotony?' Look, this ties in directly with that previous point about all the prints coming out differently. Just picture in your mind's eye the scene as I sit there ready to start work ... the proofing has been done, the decisions about colours, shadings, etc. have all been made, the paper is ready and waiting ... OK, let's go! Pigments on the block ... add the paste ... brush together ... check for that 'glisten' all over the surface ... return the brush to its spot (without turning the head - after a zillion times, I _know_ where it goes), slide the paper out ... into the 'kento' just ...... so! Against the 'hikitsuke' just ...... so! Snatch up the baren ... horizontal strokes to pin the paper ... then add pressure, small sharp circles ... pull back a bit 'here' over these delicate lines ... push a bit 'there' over this wider area ... Plop the baren back onto the cloth ... fingernail under the corner ... 'flip' the paper over onto the side board. NOW! Eye scans quickly over _every_ corner of the image ... 'kento' OK? Starting to wander a fraction of a millimetre? Make the adjustment on the next one. Brush strokes starting to become visible? Make the adjustment on the next one. Colour matches the sample? Getting a tiny bit too deep? Make the adjustment on the next one. Paper getting a bit too dry? Grab the 'mizubake' and make the adjustment. OK.. Pigments on the block ... add the paste ... brush together ... check for that 'glisten' ... Monotonous? People who stop by and watch me work sometimes say things like that. They think my work is like a robot in the Toyota factory, banging on door panels all day. But if they could _see what I see_, they could never make such a statement. Because even with all those million details that are necessary to make good and _consistent_ prints, there is something else ... When the first copy of the first colour of a print run is flipped off the block and lies there for inspection, I get a 'kick'. Look at that! It's beautiful! With the second copy of the first colour of a print run ... It's beautiful! The third copy ... beautiful! The fourth copy ... beautiful! ... And when the first colour is done, comes the second colour ... one, two, three, four ... and the third colour ... one, two, three, four ... And then, after days of work, after days of minute inspection of each and every impression of each and every colour, comes that final 'flip'. And you know what? It's STILL beautiful! Monotonous? I can't imagine a less monotonous job. And all the time that this is going on, through every impression of every colour, I am doing this without thinking of what is going on. Do you know the feeling of arriving somewhere in your car, and you can remember clearly having got in and turned the ignition, but you can remember nothing at all of the trip itself? All the way along the road, through traffic lights, turning corners, changing lanes ... all the way along, your body handled the complex and difficult driving job without any 'interference' from you at all. This is the kind of experience that those 'zen' guys are looking for - you know, the people who go and sit on cushions in temples while somebody whacks them with a stick ... You don't need the temple. That experience is all around us ... every day. When you have trained well, and you really really really know what you are doing, you can handle the most difficult and intricate job - can handle it well, and can still keep a free mind. A mind then able to wander at will, to think about that posting on [Baren] that just _must_ be answered. Monotonous? After seeing that quote, I wondered just _how_ I could let him see what I see! And how I could do it without seeming to be against his ideas, and without hurting him ... *** *** *** Well, I guess you might be a little mixed up by now ... It might help if you find a Japanese friend and ask what the word 'Oushi' means ... Dave ------------------------------ From: Dan Wasserman Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 10:58:58 -0800 Subject: [Baren 100] Starting in Black and White Ray: This may make our fellows cringe, or not, but I have some cheats I use with students to get them working rapidly in drawing and composition for woodblock without the investment in actual carving. We do this before or while they are doing their first actual cut. I have students work on the principals of woodcut design using two processes: 1. Drawing with a *sharpie* fine tip magic marker and photocopying the results for a sense of how the design will look in high contrast. 2. Drawing with Chinese white opaque watercolor on black paper and photocopying the result as an execize in drawing white on black. I even do a cheat class at the holidays for complete novices where we turn photographs into pseudo-etchings, pseudo-lithos, and pseudo-woodblocks using an office copier. The procedure for the later is to place the photo under a sheet of vellum style paper and trace over the lights with a brush and Chinese white opaque watercolor. The completed vellum is then photocopied backed with a sheet of black paper... the first copy will be white on a gray field but a second copy from that first copy will be white on black if you set the machine for *darker*. I think the tradional process of pasting drawings face down on the block and abrading away the original support paper has been detailed on this list but there is new method being used in the US and Canada to tranfer preperatory drawings to the block for carving. The drawing is photocopied and this copy is placed face down on the block, the back of the copy is then swabbed with small amounts of *oil of wintergreen* [not an oil and not from wintergreen but rather a synthetic esther closly related to asprin and which is the primary active ingredient in Ben-Gay muscle rub... it is available special order cheap at independent pharmacies] and rubbed with a spoon to transfer the copier toner to the block. An extremely cheap paper I use for students so they don't feel uptight about wasting paper is Tableau, a generally available Abbeca fiber paper that superficially resembles Japanes paper and has tremendous strenth even when wet. Ray, if you do want a press call Jerry's Artarama [1-800-U-ARTIST] and ask if the 10x15inch Italian student press they sell for $166 shipped has enough take-up for woodblocks. I strongly recomend printing without a press though. Also, you may not know that an accepted practice at least in American-style printmaqking is to proof woodblocks in progress by doing rubbings with say a black crayon. I recomend the soy-based childrens' crayons from Prang since they are much smother than the traditional parafin childrens' crayon. To try out design in color I have students drop watercolor into the open areas of such rubbing since the wax acts as a resist. Well, hope the above is of some interest. Truly, Daniel ------------------------------ From: Ray Esposito Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 15:48:54 -0500 Subject: [Baren 101] Re: Starting in Black and White At 10:58 AM 12/18/97 -0800, you wrote: >Ray: > >This may make our fellows cringe, or not, but I have some cheats I use >with students to get them working rapidly in drawing and composition for >woodblock without the investment in actual carving. We do this before >or while they are doing their first actual cut. Dan Let them cringe. Some real crazy ideas. I will try them all. The great thing about the world of art is the great adventure of trying new things. However, while I try your ideas, I have begun my first wood block based on another from a 15th century prayer book I own. I'll let everyone know how this first one came out. Thanks for the help. Ray Esposito ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 07:14:12 +0900 Subject: [Baren 102] Re: Starting in Black and White > Also, you may not know that an accepted practice at least > in American-style printmaqking is to proof woodblocks in > progress by doing rubbings with say a black crayon. Another easy way to get an idea about how the carving is going is to use carbon paper. Place it _face up_ over the block, cover it with a sheet of copy paper, and then rub with the baren. If you have the copy paper taped down at one edge, you can slide the carbon paper around a bit as you are rubbing, to help get a blacker image. Be careful that there aren't any small wood chips lying around in there, or they may get 'squeezed' and leave a small 'dent' in the wood surface ... Dave Bull ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V1 #19 **************************