Whidbey Sketchers

We've started our own Whidbey Sketchers group. Sketched at a couple locales on the island. Here's a few more drawings from our last get together.

Woodcut Snowflakes Test

As soon as I had the first block cut I had to do a little test run on some scrap Rives BFK buff colored paper. It's a lovely color. The texture of wood is so pretty and fascinating. I did a quick cutout with veneer to see how it would print on top.
Now cutting the second block. Making a bit of a mess out of this one. I want lots of textures, so the more mistakes, the merrier!

Woodcut Christmas Card in the Works!

Snowflakes and no snow... yet. I think a simple three block image for this year. Finding wood much easier to cut than I thought it would be. Enjoying being able to get good detail. Though it'll definitely have a hand cut quality to it. If anyone wants one, email me your address: kwiltse@whidbey.com and I'll make sure you receive one!

Urban Sketching

I'm getting in touch once again with my love for sketching on location. Usually I prefer outdoor scenes of land and cityscapes, but need to work on drawing people so decided to join a friend and do some group sketching. Watercolor is fast and can be treated in a gestural fashion. Blocking in areas then getting more detail later. It's easy to get caught up in facial features and watercolor forces me to be less descriptive. Here are a few done today...

My Registration Method

Registration was a complete mystery to me, so I experimented with various methods. Heck, sometimes I just make marks on a piece of paper showing where to put the block and line up the paper. Here's some photos of my funky registration method. I glued down L shaped pieces of mat board onto MDF. A carpenters square was used to square it up. It's kinda goofy, but is quite accurate.

Transfering the Keyblock to Blocks

When doing a multi-block print I cut the keyblock first then transfer the image to all the blocks per color/s. A sheet of acetate serves as the transfer medium, but I'm sure any coated paper such as glassine would work too. Speedball water based inks is my preference for this process since it dries the fastest and prints nicely on acetate. I make sure my registration system is set up for easy and accurate registration so that I don't have to figit with it later. After the ink dries I wash the it off the plate, leaving a stained-in ghost image. Also, the image on acetate, when laid over each print in progress helps me to know where to cut.

Extending Relief Prints

A year ago I had the honor of creating 6 different linoleum block prints for American Flatbread Pizza sold at Whole Foods Markets. They've decided to change the format of the images from square to horizontal, giving me the opportunity to make these images bigger and better, I'm delighted to say. They are wonderful clients with a great product. All pencils are approved and printing is underway. Yeah!