White Line Duck Print

Eggs Get Broken - Even in Tuscany
White line woodcut printed in watercolour 20 x 25cm

I was recently photographing ducks at our friends, Jean & Aziz's olive farm near Cortona which inspired this woodcut print. I have a thing for ducks with their beautiful shining white feathers and pale blue eggs.

The Woodblock painted with watercolour prior to printing.
Edition limited to 1 print only

Detail of print with pattern embossed by the etching press.

Detail of Tuscan landscape with duckweed

Ducks are much on my mind today because I was reading the sweet but sad story of Jeanette Jobson's favourite duck, Buddy. You can find photos and the legend of Buddy's life here on Janette's blog.

White Line Printing

Detail of watercolour woodblock print

Watercolour Woodblock print & plywood plate 17 x 17cm

After testing this 'new' method of printing a multicoloured image from a single woodblock, I decided to make a larger version of my little test vase print. I particularly love the blind embossing achieved by printing these plywood blocks on a large etching press. The plan is to dedicated larger areas of embossed pattern in future pictures.

After doing a bit more research I think this method is a version of White Line Printing of which you can read an excellent description HERE on The Baren Forum of Woodblock Printing.

What started as simple admiration for the art created by Japanese printmakers is developing into a full-blown obsession with finding out how they actually cut and printed the blocks. I'm trying very hard to resist the temptation to go the whole way because, while the equipment is simple, it's expensive and hard to come by here in Italy.

Vase Still Life - Watercolour woodcut print

9.5 x 10.5cm Watercolour woodcut & monotype print

The Monotype Print

The plywood engraved and painted block after printing

This is the end of the test images. Now I'm going to work on a larger block.

If you would like to know more about the process, and see the incredibly beautiful prints of Australian artist/printmaker Cressida Campbell, you can will find it all on her website HERE.

Watercolour Woodblock Prints

Monotype Print with Engraved & Watercoloured Woodcut Block

I have finally found a way to combine my two great loves - watercolour and woodcut relief printing, thanks to a link from my dear friend, writer/painter Sally in Sydney and the technique of a fantastic Australian painter/ printmaker.

8 x 8cm block & monotype print

I kept the design of these two blocks simple because they were for test purposes and I didn't want to break my heart if they didn't work. They did work! If you click on the images you should be able to see the embossing in the larger view.

Further details tomorrow when I post a photo of the third print.

Iris Woodcut Print with Watercolour

Irises woodcut print hand coloured with watercolour

If you think you have just had a touch of deja vou it's because I was so unhappy with the photographs of my prints in the previous post I've deleted the post and started again, this time scanning my images.

Above is a woodcut print I have hand coloured with watercolour. Below is the one I posted yesterday, hand coloured with gouache.

Woodcut print with gouache

I'm happy with both for different reasons. I really like the flat colour field one can achieve with gouache, much as it would be if the colours were printed rather than painted. This is the style of printmaker Margaret Preston whom I greatly admire.

Now I'd like to know what you think.

Irises Woodcut Print

Irises woodcut print 15 x 24cms

Since our irises aren't out yet, I used a couple of my photos from last spring and a watercolour sketch as references to draw these irises. Next I plan to hand colour one of the prints.

Quince Woodcut

Woodcut 10.5 x 14cm

I bought some thin plywood as backing for lino blocks and couldn't resist trying a little woodcutting. Of course I didn't spend enough time working out the design. Couldn't wait to start cutting. I also think I may have ruined the sharpening job Rick did on my favourite linocut tools. Not sure how I'm going to tell him.

I did learn from this that it's easier to cut fine detail with the grain, rather than across it! I need to come up with a greater variety of marks. I need to keep a lookout for some nice pieces of timber. And finally, the most exciting discovery is that Baby Oil is a great alternative for cleaning up oil based inks. In future I'll not be using turps.