Posted on July 26, 2013 [Permalink]

Continued from [Arts of Japan #6 - 3] : keyblock done | Starting point of the thread was [Arts of Japan #6 - 1] : tracing begins

After a few days of sidetracked work on next month's Chibi Heroes prints (if I didn't get them carved right NOW, the staff will have nothing to print over the next couple of weeks ...), I'm now back to my own printing.

Here are the first two impressions of this design:

This is what is known as a beta block; it is totally blank, and printed with just a smidgeon of paste. The intent is to calendar the surface of the paper, because if left in its natural state, the fine lines of the next step - the key block - could not be printed cleanly.

Next up is the key block itself, printed very gently with a very flat baren:

Hopefully the next impressions should appear around two or three each day ... (hah!)

The thread continues in [Arts of Japan #6 - 5] : printing steps 3~4 ...

Added by: Michael Kohne on July 26, 2013

Perhaps my eyes just aren't up to the challenge, but I don't see a difference between the images?

[Note from Dave: upload error now fixed. Thanks Michael!]