Trad Chinese Woodblock Printing

Where do I start? Traditional Chinese Woodblock Printing is not easy. It is a mixture of cutting out the black and colour woodblocks (in my case pine), followed by hand painting the ink (for the black block) and watercolour or oils (for the colour block) onto the blocks and then using the back of a spoon or a similar instrument to ease the ink/paint onto the Xuan paper (in this case processed). I definitely learnt that a sharp engraving tool is essential and cutting as deep into the wood as you can before you start gouging out prevents a lot of slippage accidents (had quite a few - but not too noticeable!). Also, preferable not to have a nose that's running when you're chiseling away bending over because that will just drive you mad!! Well, it drove me mad, woe is me, yes I know. But the results some artists can achieve with woodblock printing are absolutely amazing. The woodblock prints below are from contemporary Chinese artists, with the exception of the fourth one, which is of course mine - can you tell - ha ha. Oh well, it was a first attempt and I have SO MUCH to learn, but I am, as always, up for the challenge :). Oh, and the course I went to was fun, hard work and really informative. It was by Suzanne Chong (www.suzannechongart.com) at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh - highly recommend it.

Chen Qi - Lotus No. 5

Chen Qi - Lotus No. 9

Prof Xiang Silou - Mother of Liangshan