Continuing to Carve: World Tree

Last updated on: February 21, 2011 at 8:08 am by Melissa Hill

Continuing to Carve: World Tree 2011-02-21T08:08:00-04:00 Melissa Hill

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I’m slowly progressing on my World Tree block. It’s the biggest block I’ve attempted yet, approximately a foot square. I’m really enjoying the detail I’m getting on it. I’m tempted once it’s done to carve more blocks to colorize the thing, but the amount of work it would take is intimadating. That’s a lot of carving! Here’s what I’ve got so far, with a fun little overlay in photoshop to make it more interesting:

I’ve become obessed with the Edo period japanese blockprints. They were truly art for the masses. Apparently kids collected prints from their favorite artists like kids today collect baseball cards (or yugio cards, for a more up to date version) I’ve been reading about their process of printing, where they first created the master block which was the black outline of the whole thing. Then they would print that onto paper and paste the print onto wood blocks. At that point using the prints of the master block, they would carve the areas of color. I don’t know how people do it now, but I’m tempted to try a version of that myself.

Having no formal art training can leave me in the lurch sometimes. Things that are obvious to someone trained are not to me, but I’m hoping that I can make up for that with innovation and a willingness to experiment. Sometimes though a little help can make all the difference. My friend Sara is studying Photography, and she’s been invaluable to me explaining photoshop. Sometimes the best thing to do is find a friend who can help you!

If any of you are interested in classic wood carved block printing, here are a few of my favorite websites:

BarenForum

Gwen Frostic

The Production of Wood Block Prints

How Prints are Made

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