Printmaking « Sean Neprud

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The 101 Woodblock Printmaking Project

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

The 101 Woodblock Series was created when acted on the knowledge that the only way that I was going to be satisfied with life is if I actually made art, something that I have known is important to me.

101 Woodblock Series - Number 1

For years, I let things like having a “real” job and working get in the way of creating art. I still have the job to pay the bills, but making art is what actually give me satisfaction.

They always say that you should follow your passions and do what you love to do, but after I finished up college and entered the workforce, that passion got put on the back burner.

It’s been sitting there for years, and I did my best to ignore it for a long, long time, but I finally got to it. I realized that I am not actually going to make anything in this world unless I, well, make something in this world.

I decided that the best way to get to it would be to create One-Hundred and One woodblock prints. Each would be different, and this project would slingshot me back into the habit of making art.

I do this because it feels right to do this.

I have finally felt, in the last few months since starting this project, like I am doing the right thing with my time, and with my life.

So what is the art about?

I like to combine plants and organic growth with graphic design shapes and mechanical stuff, like gears. The 101 Woodblock Series is largely about the designs and images that I can create by combining imagery of plants, flowers, gears, machinery, and abstract, graphic elements.

101 Woodblock Series - Number 3

In some ways, I think that the art is about a combination of peacefulness and diligence, peacefulness from the imagery that comes from nature, and the diligence of mechanical function. In some way, this imagery mirrors the creative process of printmaking, which combines artistic creativity with the craft and skill of the printing process.

What is a Woodblock Print anyway?

These prints are all made by the process called relief printing. Often blocks of wood are used to print from, but blocks of linoleum are also used (especially when your local art store doesn’t stock woodblocks).

The block starts out nice and flat, and certain portions are carved out of the block. When ink is rolled onto the carved block, the roller only touches the portions of the block that were uncarved.

The ink is rolled onto the block, then the block is pressed against paper to transfer the ink. Each color on the final print requires a separate block to print. This can be quite a few blocks per print!

A woodblock print requires both the art of creating an image, balancing the colors and making all of the artistic decisions that an artist might with a painting or a drawing, as well as the craft of printing. The blocks must be aligned, the color mixed correctly, applied to the block smoothly, and transferred to the paper evenly.

101 Woodblock Series - Number 15

Art Up For Grabs

The prints in this series are currently available to Insider Newsletter subscribers only. Insiders get the opportunity to purchase one of these prints for my costs to make and ship them. I’m only charging enough to cover my costs for the paper, ink, and blocks that are going in to making these prints, and for the cost to ship it to you.

This offer is only going to last until the series is done, and then the price for all of the prints in this series will increase. If you want to get a piece of hand-printed original art for about the cost of a sandwich and a soda (at least in Downtown San Francisco), click here and sign up for the Insider Newsletter.

UPDATE, 7 Feb 2010: This project is done. The low price is going to remain until mid to late February, then the price increases.

UPDATE, 22 Feb 2010: The promo time period is over, and these go to full price.

The Details

Each print is:

Hand inked and printed on Rives BFK paper
Completely unique. No two are exactly alike.
paper size: approximately 11″x15″
image size: 9″x12″
Shipped in a large flat envelope between rigid cardboard

For more information about this series and how to add one of the series to your collection, sign up for the Insider Newsletter.

UPDATE, 18 Jul 2020: These aren’t really for sale anymore. But, you know, thank you.

Posted in Printmaking | No Comments »

Skater Series Woodblock Carving Videos

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Indecision Time, 4x4 Woodblock Print

I filmed myself carving the 4th skater series Woodblock Print, and put together this little video.

The block took about 4 hours to carve, but using the magic of video editing software, I crammed all of this into 15 minutes. The video starts with a pencil drawing on the block, and shows the entire carving process, until it is finished and ready to be inked and printed. The video is in two parts, each part is about 8 minutes long.

I threw in all of the punk rock music that I listened to while carving these blocks, and that inspired the beginning of the skater series.

Want to see more of the prints from this series? Maybe even buy some? Check out the Skater Series Gallery.

This print is the last print in a series of 4 prints inspired by punk rock and skateboards. The prints are all 4″x4″, black and white, most done very quickly, in 5 or 6 hours, from start to completed edition.

Part 1:

Tired of my video? Wanna just look at the art? Check out the Skater Series Gallery.

Part 2

Now you’ve seen the video, check out the final print in the Skater Series Gallery!

Posted in Printmaking | 1 Comment »

What Is The Difference Between Western Woodblock Printmaking and Japanese Woodblock Printmaking (Moku Hanga)?

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Executive summary:

Western Woodblock Printmaking uses oil based inks applied to the block with a brayer (roller), and the blocks are sometimes printed with a press, and Japanese Woodblock Prints (aka Moku Hanga) are made with water-based inks applied with a brush, and are printed by rubbing a pad (baren) across the back of the paper.

Disclaimer:

Before I go on, I should make a little disclaimer: I’ve never made a Japanese Style woodblock print. Everything I know about it is from research, reading, and viewing Japanese Woodblock Prints. As a result, I might be a little irreverent.

Also, I am going to use the terms “Japanese Woodblock Printmaking” and “Moku Hanga” interchangeably. Moku Hanga translates to something like “wood pictures” or “wood graphics”, and is the Japanese name for printmaking.

Ink, Wood and Paper

Woodblock Printmaking is the art of using wood to mash ink onto paper. By carving the block of wood, you can control where ink is applied to the wood, and as a result, where it is mashed onto the paper. Sure, it gets complicated as you add detail to the image, and as you carve multiple blocks to include more colors in the print. Basically, however, it is the same principle regardless of how much detail you include. Mashing ink against paper is mashing ink against paper no matter how you spice it up.

…and no matter where in the world you do it.

There aren’t really many differences between Moku Hanga and Western Woodblock Printmaking. The biggest difference is that Japanese Woodblock Prints are, well, Japanese.

Moku Hanga

Japanese Woodblock Prints use water based ink. The water-based inks used for Japanese Woodblock prints give them a particular texture and quality that I have trouble describing, other than to say “it looks like a Japanese Woodcut”. The technique used to print in the Japanese method results in a little more texture than western methods, because the ink is applied by hand. This leads to a little variation in the density of ink throughout the print.

Speaking of “method”, it is the methods that really make a Japanese Woodblock Print what it is. Moku Hanga uses specific carving tools, which all have very specific names. Each specific tool (with its specific name) is used for a specific task.

Registration is done in a specific way, by carving very specific notches into the woodblock. Each of those notches has a specific name too (kagi and hikitsuke).

The paint is mixed in a very specific way, and applied to the block with a specific type of brush. You use a baren to press the paper against the block, to transfer the ink to the block. [Note: a “baren” is a handheld pad used to rub the paper against the block to transfer the ink] There are different barens for different uses.

Japanese Woodblock Prints are printed on a particular type of paper, called Washi, made in a particular way. This is sometimes called “rice paper”, even though it is not made of rice. It is very thin and delicate, however.

The emphasis on method and tradition is very Japanese (for lack of a better way to describe it). It reminds me of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, where everything is done in a particular way, with particular tools.

Western Woodblock Printmaking

Compare this to Western Woodblock Printing, where it seems that by comparison, anything goes. Use whatever roller you want to apply the ink. Any registration method will do, as long as it works. Press it by hand or run it through a press. It’s all good.

The ink used in western Woodblock Prints is typically oil based, though there are some modern water based inks that are designed to imitate the look and feel of the traditional oils (makes everything less messy).

Ink is applied with a brayer (ie. a roller), which results in a very even and smooth application of ink.

Washi paper is sometimes used, though other papers are also used. Rice paper is not required.

Not much difference

So, what is the difference, other than some very specific traditional ways to do things, and a difference in ink?

The answer is, “not much”.

I may sound a little irreverent about Moku Hanga, please don’t get me wrong. Japanese Woodblock Prints are some of my favorite art from throughout history, and throughout the world. This is merely my perspective from my point of view as a Western-style printmaker.

The goal of each method is to make beautiful art. The process is pretty much the same: Wood, ink, paper. Apply and transfer. Repeat.

Make beautiful art.

Tags: brayer, Ink, Moku Hanga, Printmaking, Washi, Western Style, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 4 Comments »

I’m a Printmaker, Not an Artist

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Artists get show horned together, as if we are all the same.

It doesn’t matter what subject or what medium, society thinks we are pretty much all the same thing.

Painter, sculpture, illustrator, printer, photographer, all the same.

Luckily I don’t remember specifically who I am going to pick on next, it was someone in Blogistan, or on the Twitter Show. This person was pimping out their “art training”, and from what I could see, all artists got the same training.

We’re not the same though. The skillz required to create a great painting are quite different from the skills required to make a great sculpture. Illustration, yet other skillz. Printmaking? Forgeddaboudit.

There are some basic skills that each of these different types of artists must have, but after those skills are worked out, the skills become wildly different.

I got to thinking that an artists medium is sorta like being a specific type of engineer. Nobody would offer the same training to both a Mechanical Engineer and a Structural Engineer.

A little digress, In the Spice Mines (my term of affection for my DayJob), I am an Engineer. A Mechanical Engineer in fact. I work with Electrical Engineers, Structural Engineers, Civil Engineers, and Architects (sigh) on a regular basis.

We all had the same foundation training in math and science, but the details of what we know are very different. I know enough about each of these to get by (480 volt 3 phase! #5 @ 12″ on center!), but the specialization between fields of engineering is rather different.

Electrical Engineers are concerned with voltages, power, and signal; Mechanical engineers concern themselves with pressure loss and heat gain; Structural Engineers think about shear stress and moments; architects concern themselves with getting their latte right.

Nobody would offer the same training to each of these types of engineers.

Why, as artists, are we offered the same training, wrapped as “artist training”?

I think it is because we think of ourselves as artists first, and our medium second. Contrast this with engineers, who think of them self as an Electrical or Mechanical Engineer first, and an engineer in general second.

I’d like to see artists identify with their medium first, and as an artist second.

“Artist” has too much stigma. Too much baggage.

“Artist” doesn’t capture the very different skills required to produce very different art.

I am a printmaker. I am a painter. Sometimes, an illustrator. I am not a sculpture, or a photographer.

Does this make me an artist? I guess, but after the above, that is just a trifle.

Tags: Artists, Dissin on Architects, Engineering, Mechanical Engineer, painting, Printmaking
Posted in Printmaking | 5 Comments »

Skater Series Printing is Done

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Lotsa printing yesterday.

The skater prints are all done, I just have to let the ink dry. I printed about 65 impressions yesterday. Here is my progress about 2/3 through the day:

The Skater Series prints are all printed, and will be signed and numbered after they dry.

The black ink takes longer to dry than colored ink, these usually need a good week or so.

(Note to self: a little cobalt dryer might be appropriate next time I’m printing black and white)

These will be signed and numbered next weekend, and I should have them up for sale shortly thereafter. These are gonna be pretty low in price, so you will be able to get one without breaking the bank. I’ll probably have some sort of deal for people that want the set of all 4, but I’ll figure that out next weekend.

Note: If you are itching to buy some art, you can buy prints from the 101 Woodblock Series HERE.

Tags: Print, Skate, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 3 Comments »

Ye Olde “What I’ve Been Doing” Update

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

I got new supplies!

Armed and dangerous with a new roller. Time to do some damage.

A big fat order from McClain’s arrived yesterday.

(I order from them ’cause they’re the best. Seriously. I placed my order late afternoon Thursday, they ship it Friday, it arrives Tuesday)

I got a new roller, which I am very excited about. It is far nicer than the dinky pinky Speedball roller I’ve been using.

Got some clean up supplies, soap and nitril gloves, and most af all, paper. I got a dozen sheets of Shin Torinako washi paper. I used it for the first round of printing of these skater prints I’ve been making, and I needed more to print up the rest of the editions.

Each sheet of the paper can make about 16 or so prints, so I have enough to print up a nice edition of each. I’ll probably make about 15 prints of each block, except block 2, there will be 23.

(I’ve already printed some, and gave some away on Twitter. Follow @BadDeacon on Twitter. You might get free stuff)

Speaking of rollers and paper, I finally got the 4th skater block printed:

Woodblock Print, 4x4 inches, title to be determined

This means you can expect a few things to happen now that these are done:

I’ve got an upcoming post discussing what this series of prints was really about. It actually has little to do with punk rock and skateboards, anbd a whole lot to do with deliberate practice (I’ll talk about exactly what that is).
I’ll have a video coming out about this 4th print. I filmed the carving and printing of this block, so as soon as teach myself how to edit video, I’ll have that out. Turns out video ads quite a bit of complexity to pretty much everything.
These skater prints will be going on sale. They’ll be pretty cheap, about the same price as a sandwich (I like to think of value in terms of food). I’ll probably do a bunch of stuff like make a “buy 3 get the 4th free” promotion, as well as discounts and early sales to people on my newsletter. Sales should begin some time next week.

That’s it for now. Leave a comment and say “hi”.

Posted in Printmaking | 6 Comments »

Hands – Caress them and Care for them

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

I am fascinated with hands.

As far as drama goes, the face is usually the big winner. We know to look to the face to see how someone feels.

Hands are far more subtle, far more sensual, and far more truthful.

Eyes may be the window into a person’s soul, but I believe their hands are the window into their heart.

My painting professor at Santa Cruz once made a side comment to me as I was working on a painting, “hands are made to caress”. He was trying to teach me to see the shape of hands, the roundness and the curvature of them. That comment has stuck with me for about 12 years now, and, as I have seen over time, means far more than it first appeared to.

Functional Hands

...and sometimes, my hands just get covered with ink

Our hands are also incredibly functional, amazing tools. They can grip, twist, lift, move, bend, hold, tear, etc, etc. It is amazing what they can do. Would humans have advanced as far as we have without them? I don’t know.

I work with my hands to make art. In many ways, I think of art as a process of absorbing information through my eyes, running it through the processors (brain, heart), and outputting the processed image with my hands.

Without hands, much less is possible.

Always keep the hands

One of my early art lessons from Mrs. Post (my high school art teacher) was to accentuate the important, and leave the obvious vague.

To me, hands are essential, because they tell a lot of the story.

The last skater print is ready to carve

Whenever I draw a figure, I include the hands. When the image is progressing in such a way that the hands are off of the page, I redraw the image. You may notice that in each of the recent skater prints I’ve completed, I keep at least one hand in the image, preferably two.

The hands get a lot of my time and effort, because I believe that they are a critical part of the image.

Speaking of Skater prints, the last one is in progress, for those following along with this project. I have drawn the image onto the block, and I’m ready to start carving.

I opted for a decent night of sleep last night, rather than stay up till 2 am carving this block.

I should have it done tonight, and then I will be able to reveal the real reason that I have done this series of woodblock prints…

(Those of you that read Dave regularly got a hint today though)

Tags: Hands, Skate
Posted in Printmaking | 8 Comments »

Poser Skates and Woodblock Prints

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Real skate

Poser skate

You can tell how good anyone is at skating by looking at his skate(board).

If the bottom of the skate is all torn up, like the skate on the left, then they know what they’re doing. Skate’s get all torn up when they are used to grind and slide all over public curbs, handrails, stairs, etc. The bottom of the skate gets all torn up.

If the bottom of the skate is in nice, new condition, like the skate on the right, then they probably can’t skate worth a damn. If the bottom of the skate isn’t torn up, then they aren’t really skating.

So anyway, I can’t actually skate worth a damn. A dude I knew back in college working at the coffee shop gave me the deck on the left, after he had ridden it to death, and got a new one. The skate on the right is mine. Nice and shiny!

Back in Santa Cruz, I lived by a little skate park. It was little more than a bowl with a little box knocked out of one side. My roommate Luke and I would skate over to the park, and goof around. I could roll into the bowl and skate around it a bit, that’s about it.

Meanwhile, all the 10 and 11 year old kids would be tearing it up. These kids are as tall as their skateboards, and they could skate circles around me. It was always a little dis-heartening.

Oh, well. Big, 6′-2″ dudes have a whole lot further to fall before their head hits the ground.

Consolation prize

I may not be an awesome skater, but I can make decent woodblock prints. Just finished the latest one of these little things, the one I started the other day.

It came out kinda interesting:

Woodblock Print, 4x4 inches, third in the series

Not sure what I’ll do with all of these yet, we’ll see.

Tags: Skate, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 6 Comments »

More Punk, More Woodblock Prints

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Punk rock does it again.

I had fun the night before making a silly little print, so instead of catching up on sleep (I was only up till midnight last night though), I made another print. Another skater dude print. Good times!

Rise Above, 4x4 inches, Woodblock Print

It’s pretty much the same thing as I did before, a dude with a skateboard who looks kinda excited about the fact that he has a skateboard. Who wouldn’t be excited about riding a skateboard?

Actually, all this talk makes me want to grab my skate out of the closet and start bombing down these hills I live on. Anyway, I know I can’t skate worth a darn anymore, and 6′-2″ is a long way for my head to fall before it hits the ground.

This idea is just a repeat from the night before. I don’t know why I did the same thing over again, this isn’t on my schedule or anything, I just enjoy making these things. I may make a few more of these, we’ll see. I have to deliberate with myself. It’s not like these goofy little prints require a ton of practice, they are just fun.

I only printed 4 of these last night, because I was tired by the time I got around to printing. I may carve a little more on this, I think I want to see how it will look if I carve a white line around the figure, to separate him from the lines in the background.

We’ll see. Maybe I won’t carve any more. It’s just punk rock, right? Rise above.

Important stuff

This print was brought to you by some great early 80’s hardcore:

T.S.O.L. – T.S.O.L.
Agent Orange – Living in Darkness
SNFU – And No One Else Wanted To Play
Black Flag – The First Four Years
Black Flag – Damaged
Minutemen – Paranoid Time
Minutemen – The Punch Line
Redd Kross – Born Innocent

I can guarantee I won’t toil away my hours tonight, I got something to do. I won’t be home. If you were hoping that I would somehow have yet another of these little prints done tomorrow, I won’t.

It’s also punk rock to skip days.

Tags: Punk Rock, Skate, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 7 Comments »

All Work and No Play makes Deacon Listen to Skate Punk all Night and Make Woodblock Prints

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Horse Bites, Dog Cries by D.I. One of the better punk rock records ever.

I didn’t intend to stay up till 3am last night.

I’ve been in the Spice Mines (DayJob) all weekend, trying to get caught up for a deadline. This put a huge damper on my weekend, when I usually put in a lot of time working on art. I got home around 8pm last night, after a 10 hour day in the office. I packed up a few orders, and relaxed for a bit.

My mistake was to listen to “Horse Bites, Dog Cries”, quite possibly the most perfect punk rock record ever. I got fired up, and grabbed my sketch book. Then I remembered I have a bunch of small 4″x4″ woodblocks.

Before I knew it, I was sketching out an idea for a quick little woodblock print. 10 to 15 minutes later, I had a decent enough sketch on paper, so I re-drew the image on the block, and carved for a good 3 hours or so.

I rolled out some black ink, and printed up 8 copies of this silly little image. It’s not meant to be anything groundbreaking, just a funny little image of a dude on a skateboard.

Static On The Brain, 4x4 inches, Woodblock Print

I am gonna be wiped out all day because I stayed up till 3am, and my alarm went off at 6:30.

…though it took me till 7:15 to roll out of bed.

I have been a bit frustrated lately that DayJob has required all my time, and has put printmaking on hold for a few weeks. It felt good to make a little something. Even a silly little something.

What really fired me up was listening to some awesome music. This print is brought to you by the following albums (I listened to D.I. and Suicidal twice):

D.I. – Horse Bites, Dog Cries
Circle Jerks – Group Sex
Dead Kennedys – In God We Trust, Inc.
D.I. – Team Goon
Adolescents – Adolescents
Wasted Youth – Reagan’s In
Suicidal Tendencies – Suicidal Tendencies
7 Seconds – Walk Together, Rock Together

All albums I recommend if you want to get your early 80’s punk rock fix.

A Few Things Learned

1 – Washi paper accepts the ink on the block far better than cotton rag paper. The paper I have been using for my last project is Rives BFK, a heavy, thick paper. It is meant for lithography or intaglio, not block printing.

A few weeks ago I placed an order for a selection of Washi papers. Tonight was the first time I used these papers, and the more delicate washi takes the ink far easier than the cotton rag paper.

2 – When an ink maker calls their ink “Intense Black”, they might mean it. This stuff is a mess, and is gonna be stuck under my fingernails for a good week or so.

Oh well.

The Real Lesson

The real lesson of this whole thing is not to listen to awesome music, because it will make you do awesome stuff, and you won’t sleep. This is the danger of Punk Rock music.

I will probably end up giving these away as promotions, or selling them for a few bucks. In this case, the doing was far more important than the product.

Tags: Punk Rock, Skate, Woodblock Print
Posted in Printmaking | 2 Comments »

Sean Neprud