These next two are actually from the same block, but I'm going to ink part of it heavier than the rest. First, we start with some dark brush strokes up in the foliage area:

That is followed by a somewhat weaker, and slightly randomly applied, dab of darker pigment on some areas of the central characters:

Now actually, there isn't much more to this one. Tomorrow's impressions will be an 'invisible' one - a flat beta ban with no pigment, to kill the embossing of the printed impressions, and then the outer borders and pattern. We're almost done ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:08 AM | Comments (0)

Two today ... even amidst all that chaos of visitors!

This impression adds a lot of background detail - grasses and bushes - as well as an almost complete animal. This one is a bit strange - in the original scroll this rabbit is depicted in quite 'ghostly' fashion, with lines far more faint than the one next to him, who we will meet in the next stage. Was this really intentional, or was the brush simply running out of pigment? I'll never know, but it's just my job at this point to try and basically copy what I see ...

And the next level, with more greenery, and the next rabbit ...

We'll ramp up the saturation of the sumi ink quite a bit in tomorrow's first impression ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:43 AM | Comments (0)

Here we are, with our daily update on the printing progress on this image. And with the base tones basically in place (I may touch up more on those later) we begin to layer the brushwork:

Not much to see here yet, but over the next couple of days, it will start to make more sense.

I'm not quite sure if I will be able to get another impression done tomorrow; it's going to be pretty busy around here. Tsushima-san and Ayumi-san will be working some brushes on the sharkskin, and will need guidance, and Ishikawa-san is working on a Zeshin reproduction, for which she will need help too. In addition to this, a couple of college kids making a video are coming over to do some filming, and there will also be a visit from an NHK producer (no connection with those kids) to discuss my participation in an upcoming NHK World program sometime in early August. That'll be broadcast internationally, as well as on the net. It's not going to be a program about me; this time I'm being hired to act as 'travel guide' as we visit an interesting part of Japan.

This is the program series, and this is where we will be going. I understand broadcast will be in the fall sometime, and of course I'll let you know about it then ...

And hopefully inbetween all this stuff, I might get some time at the bench, we'll see ...

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:24 AM | Comments (0)

Another 'single impression' day today unfortunately ... At this rate, it's going to be years before this series is wrapped up!

It's a single impression, but actually a kind of double, as there are two gradations:

As you can see, we're still preparing the base tone. I think this might do it, and tomorrow should see the first part of the brushwork being applied.

Posted by Dave Bull at 1:14 AM | Comments (0)

Today's single impression (!) looks pretty much the same as yesterday's:

... but if we zoom up, we can see a bit of difference:

The idea is simply to print this a bit roughly. I don't want my typical smooth impression for this print, and tried (not so successfully actually, as at least one webcam viewer this morning can testify!) to produce a bit of mottled tone. One reason I had trouble with doing that was that this block is a wonderfully smooth one, with just the perfect ability to drink in the pigment mix and give it back to the paper on demand from the baren.

But the reverse side of the block, which I hadn't used because it was such poor quality, seemed as though it would work better for this purpose, so I quickly cut out the shape and tried it, and it did indeed give me basically the kind of tone I want.

But this is still nowhere near 'rough' enough for what I would like to have for this scroll, so the next two impressions will have to be done in a bit more slipshod manner for sure!

And in a bit of non-woodblock news, I had a few more adventures down in the river the other day and today. I've had some sightings of a new (to me) visitor. The first time was a few days ago when I was sitting on the river bank shooting some video of a couple of fish either fighting or mating in the water (I have no idea which it was). I'll try and get a chance to upload that video later, but for now ...

It wasn't easy to shoot down into the water to see the fish because of all the reflections from the sky and the overhanging trees, so I just kept shooting and shooting, hoping to get something out of it later. And at one point, the camera started beeping, and I got the display "Card Full". So I shut it off and placed it on the riverbank at my side. But before I had even let go of it, there was a rustle in the bushes on the opposite bank, around 4~5 metres away, and a little critter popped out and stared at me.

A ferret/weasel/mink type of little guy, I had no idea which. He had a lizard (or perhaps snake) in his mouth, and bounded off into the distance along the top of the embankment.

If he had shown up not ten seconds earlier - while I was still filming - I would have simply lifted the camera from the fish, and caught him!

Act Two was this afternoon. Visitor Kato-sensei (one of my oldest and most reliable collectors) had dropped by, and we were standing at the railing just outside the workshop. And yes, out he popped again, from the same place. This time he had nothing in his mouth, but scampered down the embankment, splashed through the shallow water beneath us, and disappeared up river. This was enough of a good sighting to make a good mental note of his shape, and colouring, and a few minutes with Wikipedia gives me a provisional ID of an チョウセンイタチ ... Siberian Weasel.

Woot!

Act Three was this evening, and I might as well show you right away all that I managed to catch:

Again, I was sitting on the embankment, again with camera in hand, simply sitting there hoping that he might come along. While I waited I 'practiced' a bit - I trained the camera on a little bird that was down below me, taking a quick 'bird bath' in a shallow pool. "Let's see; if he comes out, I'll focus like this ... then press the zoom ... and I'll have him!"

I went through the motions ... no problem. I'm ready. And again, the instant I put the camera down, he appeared. He darted from the undergrowth, and had that bird in his mouth in a split second. He then bounded across the scene in front of me, disappearing off in the distance at the right, as you see in that photo, taken as I frantically turned the camera on, waiting through its interminable startup routine before it was ready to shoot ...

I tell you, this guy has been sprinkled with magic dust that makes him immune to cameras!

But as it seems that he has settled in here for a while, I'll keep trying!

There is however, another aspect to this. The number of fish in the pool below me has dramatically decreased over the past few days. I have had no idea where to, as they can't swim away because the river is too low. But I think I now understand ...

I suspect this guy isn't actually so 'cute' after all. I think we may be dealing with a mass murderer here, and all I can hope is that once has has basically 'cleaned out' this little corner of the river, he'll move on somewhere else! But not - hopefully! - before I can get a clear shot of him!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:07 AM | Comments (3)

Here we go again ... printing in finally under way on the third print in the Arts of Japan series. The first impression is nothing to write home about - but it of course provides an important base on which the subsequent work will build:

I don't think this print will have a whole lot of impressions. I'm thinking that four or five should suffice to get the 'base' ready, and the brushwork should maybe take another four or five. I'll then do the outlines and embossing, and it'll be ready. So perhaps ten will do it, although we'll see what comes up along the way.

(I'm hoping that I can get this batch done within the week - not only because the weather is very hot here now, with a concomitant risk of mold, but because there is now just one week left to go before Jed and I open up our Kickstarter project. That'll be happening as the clock turns to the 1st of August, New York time. I'm not sure why Jed chose that particular moment to get going; perhaps no other reason than that it might be a convenient time for him, I'm not sure ...)

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:25 AM | Comments (2)

The carving on the 'Animal Scroll' image is progressing well, although with so much detail in the grasses, progress is measured in very small areas per day, for sure!

Here are three of the four blocks that will do the scene itself (other blocks will do the 'background' - paper tone, etc.):

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:42 AM | Comments (0)

Just a quick little update this evening ... the first face of the block set for this image is now done:

Any Japanese readers now know exactly what this image is, and where it is taken from. Can any of the overseas readers pin it down?

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:35 AM | Comments (7)

No, the Arts of Japan series hasn't been abandoned! Carving has begun!

Do we have any eagle-eyed readers who can identify the image? As the original is not a woodblock print, that will be kind of a long-shot this time, I think!

Posted by Dave Bull at 2:06 AM | Comments (0)