Grass-2 large woodblock print 22.5 x 72 inches from 16 blocks
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My lawn seems a near-perfect subject for drawings and woodblock prints. Grass-1 was a drawing (not yet completed). Grass-2 is a woodblock print — sixteen blocks cut two blocks to a sheet of 4×8 foot quarter-inch cherry plywood. Grass-3 is another drawing under construction at the moment. This format allows me to ink and print a block all from one side of my 5 x 10 foot stationary bed pinch-roller press. Images like this one lend themselves very well to my pr0cess. The staccato rhythm of the many transitions from lightest to darkest works so nicely (so long as registration is perfect) and I love the way the quick changes in the blades of grass are moderated by slower visual rhythms of the relatively large clover and other leaves so there’s a bit of music in this print, and a bit of mystery and drama, I feel. Not only the visual cycle of lights and darks, but also something about birth, death, and renewal. My eye spirals through this image, following the shafts of the grass, pausing in the leaves, circling, circling, and I notice that some things are fresh and healthy and others seem to have been chewed up and decayed — and what’s going on under that surface? Dirt and worms and… This kind of (somewhat allegorical) image works for me on many levels and I don’t imagine I’ll grow tired of looking at it… Time will tell!
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Yessiree! Beautiful print and as always it’s so fun to watch your process. Thanks for the inside look.
Mr. Lyon, your print is beautiful, I really enjoy the scale of your prints. I was wondering if you could share a little bit on how you separate the different values or blocks to make your prints? It looks like you may be starting from a photo? What’s the process you use or program to get 16 different color blocks from a photo?
I’ve been a baren digest subscriber for about two years and I have a few ideas for woodblock prints using an original photograph but not sure how to get the separations?
Any chance you can point me in the right direction. Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best,
Peter Dylag
Dear Peter,
First, the best place I know of to ask questions about woodblock printmaking and get MANY ‘answers’ is Baren Forum at http://barenforum.org
My site is pretty chock-full of technical information about my work and processes — but maybe there’s too much here to sort through… I wrote a pretty concise introduction eight years ago for another Baren artist who lives in Italy, Colleen Corradi. She published it here: http://www.monoprints.com/info/techniques/reduction_print.html and I think it might be just what you’re looking for?
Good luck!
Mike, Your set up is amazing, as well as your print. Thanks for sharing.
Hi
I had a simular idea of using arabic patterns with my drawings but never to this extent i actually cant believe my eyes your work is beautiful. is interesting how a pattern mixed with a slightly looser pattern can work. Is all of you work computerised or is there hand drawn versions too? I cant tell the difference and would like to know if its humanly possibe to achive results like this by hand
Thank you
Dan
Not all my work uses electromechanical tools, but I have used the computer controlled router for some smaller work and for all woodcuts larger than about 20 inches. Better results than this can be achieved with hand tools — the router placement is theoretically accurate to within about 2/1000ths inch — that seems like it’d be more accurate than hand carving, but… As a practical matter, the router is pretty hard on the material and very thin lines and very small printing elements have a tendency to break off.
Hand carving is much gentler, finer, and capable of more nuance than the machine, but it’s VERY MUCH SLOWER — I can carve 24 hours a day by machine but not nearly that long by hand (duh) — and by hand I must slow down for the delicate work, hairlines, tiny marks, etc. The machine is coarser but on these very large multi-block prints it doesn’t seem to matter — the hand-printed surface is satisfyingly full of subtle nuance and detail.
Thanks, Dan, for your kind comments, by the way — nice to be appreciated!!!
– Mike
Mike,
Your work is fascinating. Combining CNC with art across so many mediums is a truly significant achievement. Your wood block printing is a labor of love. But the most arresting work is the way you captured Danielle’s eyes. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Bill