Posted by Dave Bull at 7:47 AM, January 7, 2011 [Permalink]

And ... another three more today too!

A block to darken up the underside of the ferryboat, and also add a few 'highlights' here and there:

And the final 'bare' passenger gets his drapery coloured, along with the motif on the coat of the flower seller:

And the most dramatic of all the impressions - the water gets its depth coat:

That concludes our 'regularly scheduled programming' ... but she is of course not finished. It's time for me to put it aside for a while, and start doing some experiments on the next stages.

We're of course going to turn it into a snowy day, and there are a few different ways to do that. Snow is sometimes created by cutting out little holes in all of the blocks to leave the white paper showing, but it's too late for that method this time! Another method - as shown in this print I made some years ago - is to carve a block for the flakes, and print them in an opaque white pigment.

But I think this time we'll explore another method, something I have seen in old prints but have never tried. Hopefully, tomorrow's report will be positive ...

Following comment posted by: Jeanne on January 8, 2011 1:02 AM

David
Thanks for all the insight into your wonderful woodblock printing. I am enjoying all the phases.

Following comment posted by: Richard Stockham on January 8, 2011 5:38 AM

I've been enjoying this, but OK, now I'm stumped. How'd you get the two reds on the coat of the flower seller and the red bokashi all in one pass?

Following comment posted by: Dave on January 8, 2011 5:26 PM

the two reds ...

Not quite sure what you are seeing there ... unless it's the optical effect of the colours appearing a bit different because one of them is surrounded by black. There is only one red (vermillion) block, printed in a gradation from the bottom up. Here's an image of the block (enlargeable):

Following comment posted by: Richard Stockham on January 9, 2011 6:15 AM

Odd. It must be some artifact from the scanner or my computer, but what I am seeing on the flower seller's kimono is a red character device with a white interior on a field of lighter red. I like the effect. Too bad its a ghost in the machine.