Continuing with the theme of last week’s post,  I’ve been doing a lot of small sketches on black with opaque pens. A couple of these have color added.  I’ve been having a lot of fun doing these so haven’t gotten around to enlarging and expanding on them yet. I have, however, done two linocuts and one woodblock carving for a local print show.

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Although I’ve done a couple dozen linocuts, this is only my second woodcut carved on a poplar board measuring about 13 x 11” and entitled the Big Bang. In characteristic fashion, I finished carving the morning of the show’s deadline and framed it before the ink had dried.

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One thing I’ve learned about woodcuts is that it’s extremely important to learn how to sharpen your gouges, not as straightforward as you might expect. I used a dremel with engraving bits to cut most of the lines and I’ll be working on the block some more in the future. I see some room for improvement, but I’m generally content. I don’t like the prints to be too clean, part of the charm of woodcuts is letting the wood-grain and the chiseling process show.