Carving Techniques for Wood Block Relief Printing

Video Transcript

"Now, we're going to look at some specific techniques for removing material from the wood block. Okay as I remove material from the surface, I'm thinking about how all of these marks being white lines on the surface of the paper. So, by placing a bunch of carve marks next to each other, what I'm really creating is more less a value on the paper surface that would print as a bunch of white and black lines next to each other which would create kind of a grey back drop here and I'm going to do this in these areas to show a since of light using the gouge and cutting with the grain in one direction and then to enhance that value, I'm going to go against the grain here creating a cross hatch. Every cut essentially abstracts the image a little bit as well. So, the simpler your image is to begin with, probably the better off you're going to be a simple black and white graphic image. What I'm doing is essentially abstracting a photograph creating a since of light just by marks and cuts. As we take a look at the photographic image, some of the values that I've chosen as grey values are down here underneath this what appears to be a bridge. This grey value here and I've also inside some marks pretty far apart from one another that would create this perspective of the concrete as well and what I've be gone to do now with the sky is take my v-gouge and I can turn the block and push the gouge simultaneously and what would happen is I'm creating kind of a vango effect so to speak of many of marks that kind of wave across the sky much like clouds do and that's really simple technique. Where you grab the block and push the gouge and rotate just the block and equal pressure with the gouge and it's very delicate. You don't have to push really hard and remember we don't need to cut a whole lot out of the block as well. I'm going to do that a few more times. And as you recall too, I've also taken a wire brush and the interesting thing about wood is obviously the grain. If I rough up this grain, it'll print. So, it'll also create a grey value and this just your standard steel wire brush. To create some of these highlights as well in the sky, what I'm going to go back through next to my curvy linear lines, I'll take little cuts along these curvy lines periodically which will create a little sense of light. Remember my approach is a little bit more abstract but I'm still trying to capture the sense of light in the sky by removing little bits of wood."