Last Saturday, I was in a science-themed show at The Yetee Gallery in Aurora, IL. It was called "Billions & Billions," so I decided to make a print of Carl Sagan with one of my favorite quotes of his. It's another suicide woodcut, and once again I documented the color layers as I put them down. I've had a lot of people ask me about the process, so here is the step-by-step:
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| Color 1 |
1. Carved out the parts of block I wanted to remain the same color as the paper (white, in this case), and then rolled up the block with yellow ink, which was the lightest of the colors I planned on using in the print. Stretched my paper and laid out my registration using a jig and pins, and then printed the first color.
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| Color 2 |
2. Between each color, I tried to let my prints dry as much as possible before adding another color on top. This prevents the colors from mixing together or bleeding on the paper. I also talc on my block to help absorb excess ink before carving back into it. For the second carving, I removed all parts of the block that I wanted to remain YELLOW, then inked it up with the next color I'd be working on.
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| Color 3 |
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3. Repeat the same steps for each following color layer.
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| Color 4 |
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| Color 5 |
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| Color 6 (final) |
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This is what my wood block looked like
by the time I was done printing. |
4. When you're finished, all that will be left raised on your block will be the last color you printed.
