Printing

with the A3 and A4 ready to print at this stage, I thought it best to go ahead with completing those instead of spending the last of my time prepping the blocks for the A2, only to end up without a physical print to show for it.

I went in to Uni to engrave the Keyblock on the lasers for both prints and got home and started work on the colour blocks. Around a week later I had the colour blocks complete for both prints and was ready to begin.

In my last effort to explain my printing process I did a poor job but only because as I found out to my own displeasure learning mokuhanga printing out of textbooks is not easy.

So I filmed some of the process to clear things up a bit (hopefully).

Adding water drop by drop to the board, this is crucially important as for every single layer if the moisture value is off by a single drop then the shade of the watercolour pigment will obviously be different to the last one

Same here, adding ink directly to the brush, this layer was a wash therefore the amount of ink was smaller than a normal block layer but thought I'd show this as the tiny touch of one brush to the other is the only transference of pigment before it is rubbed into the block, this is all that is needed to run a print from, once again a tiny bit too much pigment and the colour will be different, too little and the print won't pull. 

Rubbing the pigment into the woodblock, concentration is required, you know the block is ready when there is a very slight sheen/gloss to the block. Hard to see, need complete focus.

rubbing the print, using a baren I abrasively rub the reverse of the print, the damp paper picks the wet pigment of the block, this was only lightly pressed some require much more thorough pressing. The paper I use is 40gsm, when damp it's like printing tissue paper, you have to be extremely quick, any more than 2 minutes outside the damp stack and the paper is dry, if this happens the print can not be re dampened and therefore is finished at its then current stage. I know how hard to rub as the pigment dyes the fabrics of the paper so I pay attention to the back to see when I can pull it of the blocks.

This time I tried something brand new, adding the paint directly to the woodblock. I had troubles with printing greys in the proof, John said it would maybe be best to buy some actual greys as opposed to mixing my own from a natural colour palette in which I have no black or white. I did buy some tubed paint, eternal summit, a paint with crushed gemstone so shines when used. This effect only came out when applied directly to the board, here I added rice paste and water to the brush.

Adding the paint.