[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Saturday, 3 October 1998 Volume 05 : Number 300 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steiner Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 22:59:33 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1794] Sounds good from Richard Steiner/Kyoto David Stones wrote last night about how he approaches the printing of his blocks, his attitude, that is. I can't help thinking that his is a good one to adopt if one is lost when it comes to thinking clearly concerning printing. While I myself prefer the carving, I approach the printing always as a learning situation, because I nearly always do learn something new, or am reminded of something I forgot. When doing the calendar last week, I "inspected" every print as I pulled it off the 8 blocks. I looked, quickly, for places where the pigment was insufficient, where the keying might have fallen off, where the paste was not enuf or too much, and more. It takes only a second to run my eye over the sheet, but it's enuf. If I found something that I didn't like, the next print corrected it. Because I taught myself to be ambidextrous, I can print with either hand, and I do, to ease the strain. Coffee breaks and interruptions also help. I have students who prefer the printing to the carving because that is where the print is born. That was what all the drawing, analysing and carving have been leading up to. That is a great attitude. As Stones said, as printmakers, by definition we do make many copies of a work. I always say to my students that we live in a world of multiplies, many prints. And as someone else wrote recently, if you can't sell 'em, give 'em away. A great idea. Steiner/Kyoto ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 20:12:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 1795] Damage Control. Richard, What are you trying to say here. None of this makes any sense ??? What has the number of prints, be it 5 or 200, done by 1 or 14 people, got to do with professionals? You wrote.... >This comes closer to being pro than the whiners who can't >print 5 sheets without getting a headache. This is certainly not a statement of a pro. Nor is it in keeping with the spirit of the Baren. Your closing was..... >I will close before I do more damage. You have slam dunked some of our members and damage repair could be possible with a simple apology. Sincerely, Graham ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 15:32:16 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1796] 'One-point' lesson ... Here is this week's 'One-point' lesson (contributed by Bill Ritchie) ********** ********** ********** (#25) How to Transfer a Laser Print (or a photocopy) to a Woodblock. After the key block is prepared: that is, sanded, wetted, and sanded again until it is as smooth as you want it to be, paste the laser print face-side down. I was taught to use oriental paper - the thinnest available - and to paste it using rice paste. The registration marks were part of the original drawing (or print from another block) and they too, are thus incorporated. Now, if the paper was extremely thin to begin with, you may be able to cut right through it without a problem, but if not, you will have to rub off the paper fibers. I didn't think I could do this with plain old bond office copier or laser printer paper, but I also thought I couldn't run thin oriental paper through my printer. Someone said it was a good way to start a fire in my printer if the paper jammed! So I tried it with copier paper. I pasted it face down on the smooth block using 'Yes Paste' instead of rice paste. Then - and this was the hard part - I gently rubbed the fibers off with a slightly moistened finger. The difficult part is knowing how moist the finger can be. Too much moisture and the paper - and the lines - slide right off and it's ruined. *** Editor's note: Bill's photograph of this process is shown in the copy of this lesson that is stored in the Encyclopedia. ********** ********** ********** Next week - ... 'Down in the Valley' ... These 'One-point' lessons are being collected into a section in the [Baren] Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking. http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html Contributions from experienced printmakers for future 'One-pointers' are eagerly solicited. ------------------------------ From: Matthew.W.Brown@VALLEY.NET (Matthew W Brown) Date: 03 Oct 98 08:04:05 EDT Subject: [Baren 1797] Re: 'One-point' lesson ... Baren, What Bill describes in his recent one-pointer is a very real thing: xerox and laser copy papes can be pasted, rubbed and then carved in the same way as the long fibered Japanese kozo papers can. (The rubbing may take a bit more concentration as the fibers are short and that lowermost face-down layer can easily tear.) I have found them easier to paste if they are first moistened (evenly, as one would moisten printing papers); that way they don't wrinkle up. If you give them some time to 'set' (20 minutes or so) I have found them a bit easier to rub. After they are dry on the block adding a little oil yields the copy very easy to see for carving if the rubbing was a bit 'timid'. Nice one-pointer, Bill! And Dan had written of: "the inability to sustain concentration" in regards to the issue of boredom. I am thinking maybe we can file this one away, maybe to be got out when (and if) we get back into the "spirituality of woodblock printmaking". Boredom is certainly an issue of the spirit, no? Matt ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 21:03:01 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1798] Various postings .... Ray Hudson wrote: > Some time ago I wrote a poem about the woodblock prints of > the Chinese printer Lu Fang ... Interesting poem, Ray. Certainly a lot more 'poetic' than my own previous verse attempts here on [Baren] ... You mentioned a magazine article on Chinese woodblock printing. Do you happen to know if this is available on the 'net anywhere? *** Jean wrote: > I have placed on my home page > http://users.lanminds.com/~jeaneger/ > my woodcut portrait of Tomoko Murakami ... Jean, the moment this print came up on my screen, it reminded me instantly of Van Gogh. !?!? I don't mean that it _looks_ like a Van Gogh, but there is something in your print that makes a direct connection - and it is a very interesting artistic point. Can any of you guess what it is? *** A new article by Jeanne went up to the Encyclopedia this morning (including illustrations of a couple of her works) ... http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html *** Pretty busy here with printing on #98, the final woman in the series, and thus the last one with multi-layered, multi-coloured kimono. The documentary film-makers were here two days ago, specifically to film the process of doing the colour mixing and proofing. I'm pretty used to them now, so it didn't bother me to have them closely watching this, but there was a bit of an 'interesting' moment ... I was trying to give the general impression that I knew what I was doing, reaching into my pigment box for packets of colour, and grinding them up, etc. But at one point I made a bit of a mistake - I announced in _advance_ what colour I was trying to make. I had a bowl full of a sandy sort of colour, and explained to them how a small dab of yellow could be added 'on the block', to turn this into an 'ochre'. Easy, right? A smear of the 'sand' on the block, a small touch of the yellow beside it, and then a dab of paste. Grab the brush and, while explaining the process as I go, dig in and start brushing it around. The result? A broad smear of green right across the block. _Bright_ green. I could hear the director's gasp of amazement. And I could see out of the corner of my eye, the camera pan from the green coloured block, up to my face, which I was manfully trying to keep 'straight'. OK - how to explain _this_ one? Sand + yellow = ochre? So what's with this emerald green ...? Actually, I didn't try to fake my way through it. I shrugged my shoulders, and told them that story about Hiroshi Yoshida and the captain who sails aimlessly over the sea ... and finally says: 'There! That's where I was going!' ... I told them that although I felt that the _ideal_ situation was one in which the printmaker was completely in control, I was not yet there. I was obviously still at the stage of being surprised ... and a lot more frequently than I would like! And a couple of minutes later though, when I moved on to another block, the 'mystery' was solved. It was time to do a small area of a deep blue colour. I mixed a new bowl of pigment, prepared the block, but then couldn't find my 'blue' brush ... I think you can guess the rest - when I was trying to do that 'ochre' I had accidentally grabbed the wrong brush. Yellow pigment on the block + a blue brush = .... So in the end, my 'credibility' was restored (somewhat). I have no idea how much of this episode will make its way into the final program, but I kind of hope it does - I'd like to get a chance to see the expression on my face when that green appeared! Dave ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V5 #300 ***************************