Baren Digest Wednesday, 24 April 2002 Volume 19 : Number 1808 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: G Wohlken Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 09:35:23 -0400 Subject: [Baren 17933] Making carbon paper, Tom Price, Wood... > > >Rub chalk on the screen allowing the powder to drift into the dish, about 1 >or 2 teaspoons should more than suffice. > >Dampen cotton ball with rubbing alcohol then dip into chalk powder. > >Rub the pigmented cotton ball onto the tracing paper, the pigment will >transfer the tracing paper allow it to dry and you will now have a sheet of >tracing paper that can be used again and again. If you still have powder >left repeat the process. > Thanks for this. Sounds interesting and I'm going to try it. We live pretty far from the nearest art supply stores, so to make my own carbon paper would be helpful. On a note that probably belongs on After Five, but since Cathryn may not be signed up for it, just a quick comment. Went to the Tom Price site and the only pictures were the council members. Interesting, how all council members, worldwide, seem to look similar. Your council members could be our council members. [:-)] -- regular guys in town who probably like to get into the mix of things. Also, Cathryn, nice to hear you want to get into wood. It's pretty addicting. I have a wood report. I did four woodcuts on basswood, and did one of them over on poplar and discovered the poplar made for a far more interesting and sensitive woodcut because basswood is too easy to cut and doesn't give the appearance of a good marriage between wood and carving tools. I was able to get woody nuances with the poplar that was impossible with the basswood. This was a black and white, oil based ink print, by the way. Gayle Ohio, USA ------------------------------ From: "Cathryn BACKER" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 22:10:10 +0800 Subject: [Baren 17934] MDF boundary I've only ever used MDF or pine for woodblocks. I'm not familiar with basswood although I do know poplar but its certainly not common in West Australia. Grows better in the cold climates of the South East. I remember beautiful Poplar trees in the school grounds when I lived in Victoria as a kid. Full of sleeping dragon-flys in Summer. Is basswood hard or soft? What does the tree look like? Perhaps we have it here under a different name. Sorry the Tom Price web site didnt work out. Looked at it from this end and it was fine. You are right: Council members do look alike, just like all politicians I think. ; Gayle: if you send me your e-mail address I'll attach it to an e-mail back to you. Will sign up for the After Fives now. Cathryn ------------------------------ From: "marilynn smih" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 07:51:41 -0700 Subject: [Baren 17935] Re: Baren Digest V19 #1807 I have AOL instant messenger under MarilynnJn marilynn ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:45:51 -0500 Subject: [Baren 17936] Re: MDF Basswood is a hardwood (deciduous), white to beige in color, very light weight and easy to carve. It is also sold under the names, "Linden", and "Lime" and is relatively inexpensive. Mike At 10:10 PM 4/23/2002 +0800, you wrote: >Is basswood hard or soft? What does the tree look like? Perhaps we have it >here under a different name. > >Cathryn ------------------------------ From: "Cathryn BACKER" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 23:56:57 +0800 Subject: [Baren 17937] Lime wood Mike, Thankyou for the info on basswood. I do know it as "lime wood". Cathryn ------------------------------ From: Daniel Dew Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:24:54 -0400 Subject: [Baren 17938] A Few Observations Transferring Images: I like to work out the details on a heavier vellum tracing paper with a #2 pencil. Once I have the image where I want it, I simply flip the image over and rub real hard. Viola, it's done! On appreciating Dave: I have just finished and shipped my prints for exchange #13. There were about 6 versions of it before I settled on the final version. But here is my praise: It is a major pain in the rear-end to follow a design "exactly". For my print to "work", I had to carve lots of small lines that interconnected and criss-crossed, lots of detail and very little room for mistakes. I now have new appreciation for Dave's successful attempts at re-producing the old masters, although the design portion is eliminated, the cutting and printing portion allows for very few errors, if any at all. Dave, my hat is off to you in renewed appreciation of your skills and talents. Question: I have read and heard many times that in Moka Hanga printing, the brush stroke should not be overly noticeable but that the ink should flow smoothly. But yet when I see examples of famous Japanese masters, many times I can see with the naked eye the brush strokes. Here's the question: Does it depend on the image or the craftsmanship whether the lines show up? Dan Dew ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:25:51 -0500 Subject: [Baren 17939] Re: A Few Observations 04/23/2002 02:26:14 PM Dan writes: "..But yet when I see examples of famous Japanese masters, many times I can see with the naked eye the brush strokes." I'll throw some wood into the fire. Some artists intentionally use a carving technique ("Kasure" ?) to create an area that when printed simulates a dry-brush painting technique. It is used in many bird prints by Keinen & others for the tree trunks and branches. Others use baren pressure to create special effects like the circular patterns often seen in backgrounds ("baren-suji"). Re areas of flat color with unintentional brush strokes, I can only think of that here is where a good quality brush, well prepared (rounding of the edges and softening of the hairs) can make a big difference. When doing large to mid-size flat color areas, I sometimes experiment trying different brushing patterns. Among these...across the grain of the wood overlapping the srokes from one end to the other of the block, with the grain, circular and sometimes I skip the final soft/fine brushing to see what kind of effect I get. Then I carefully look at the resulting print to see if there are any noticeable differences. The most important thing to avoid brush marks is that the final strokes should be very soft and almost miss the block. Here is an amusing one-point lesson from the encyclopedia that's to the point: http://barenforum.org/encyclopedia/entries/onepoint/018_14/ 018_14_frame.html thanks...Julio ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:29:32 -0500 Subject: [Baren 17940] Re: A Few Observations At 02:24 PM 4/23/2002 -0400, you wrote: >For my print to "work", I had to carve lots of >small lines that interconnected and criss-crossed, lots of detail and very >little room for mistakes. > >Question: I have read and heard many times that in Moka Hanga printing, the >brush stroke should not be overly noticeable but that the ink should flow >smoothly. But yet when I see examples of famous Japanese masters, many >times I can see with the naked eye the brush strokes. Here's the question: >Does it depend on the image or the craftsmanship whether the lines show up? > >Dan Dew Hi Dan, Here's a 'trick' you can try next time you want very small, close together lines which criss-cross... Amaze your friends! Impress your family! Astound the public! Carve TWO blocks for the lines. One block has lines running one way, the other has lines running the other way. It's very quick and easy to carve tiny, more or less parallel lines in one direction -- you can even use a 'V' gouge... But it's SO hard to cut out all those zillions of tiny squares and rectangles from between the lines in a single block. So make it easy on yourself and carve two (or more) blocks! You'll even amaze yourself! On the moku-hanga question... Do you mean Japanese Masters of the 20th century? Or 19th C? or earlier? Self-printed? Or published? Most of the marks in traditional prints which appear to be 'brush strokes' were actually carved to simulate brushed lines and tones, especially in calligraphy and in particular subject matter. Many prints tried to mimic brush paintings of the time. Shoki the Demon Queller and Daruma are subjects which were usually designed to appear as if they were painted rather than printed. Also dragons. The tradition in Japan of 200+ years ago and continuing through the present day is that printed images were 'published' == produced by carving and printing specialists other than the artist or designer. You can sometimes perceive 'brush strokes' (usually long sweeping strokes) in some of those prints -- especially those which were hurriedly made to be sold 'cheaply'... In many early 19th century Osaka prints there is a richly gradated black background in which the brush marks, or sometimes baren marks can sometimes be seen. Also in particular colors (often in green) the marks made by the brush can be made out, but those weren't generally intended to be part of the design itself -- they were an unintended byproduct of the production techniques. In the early 20th century, Watanabe and other shin-hanga (new prints) publishers experimented with special effects of printing peculiar to moku-hanga -- baren bokashi (gradations and often lines produced not by carving, but by swirls or lines made by the edge of the baren) is the most frequently seen non-carved mark, I think. It was at about the same time that self-printing (sosaku-hanga) by the artist/print designer became accepted. These sosaku-hanga prints are generally much more freely produced and show a variety of novel techniques including obvious 'brush strokes'. Don't know whether that moves closer to any sort of 'answer' to your question, but I love the topic! Mike Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon@mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: barebonesart Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 17:19:38 -0700 Subject: [Baren 17941] Re: Baren Digest V19 #1807 Someone mentioned not understanding the importance of reversing the image. I didn't think this was important either until I decided to do an etching of my husband's family home to give to each of his siblings for Christmas. This was about 30 years ago and my second etching. Well, the importance was readily apparent when I pulled the first proof. It was a lovely house, but it wasn't the right house! So, there are times when it is very important to reverse the image on the block. As for drawing directly on the block - it's great when it happens, but I end up using a lot of images from my sketch book and sometimes it is much easier to transfer a drawing already done than to do it over again - and, it is always different the second time, anyway. Unless you're copying someone else's work, there is no such thing as cheating. Cheers, Jeanne! I will toast my mug of Thera-Flu to you and your new digs this evening. I hope you'll send a picture! Sharri ------------------------------ From: "Jean Womack" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 22:53:40 -0700 Subject: [Baren 17942] Re: Baren Digest V19 #1807 How's the progress of the big print exchange going? I haven't heard from Rudolph in a while. The effort to print ten big hanga-style prints was more than I imagined. I've been learning Adobe Illustrator lately and I'm looking forward to planning woodcuts using that program! Has anyone tried that yet? Jean Eger Womack http://www.jeaneger.com ------------------------------ From: "John Cleverdon" Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 01:04:15 -0700 Subject: [Baren 17943] Drawing directly on blocks for reduction prints I do reduction woodcuts by drawing directly on the block with acrylic paint. First I paint the block with acrylic gesso. Then I paint the image. Finally I apply a coat of shellac to keep the ink from soaking through the acrylic paint. I use oil based inks and clean up with mineral spirits (paint thinner). I use mineral oil to clean ink off my hands. John Cleverdon Point Clear, AL ------------------------------ From: "Cathryn BACKER" Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 14:26:56 +0800 Subject: [Baren 17944] paint thinner Getting thinners on your hands is not a good idea, John. It is a known carcinogen (causes cancer). If you wear very thin surgical gloves you won't have to do that. The gloves are available at any supermarket here in Australia, probably the same in the U.S. the fumes are also toxic, so good ventilation and wear a mask if you can. Be careful. Regards Cathryn ------------------------------ From: CWaimon@aol.com Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:10:16 EDT Subject: [Baren 17945] Re: Call for entries Please email the prospectus for this exhibition or tell me how I may obtain one. Thank you, D. Waimon ------------------------------ From: "Cathryn BACKER" Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 19:39:46 +0800 Subject: [Baren 17946] Afer Five's? Hi, Can someone send me the e-mail address for After Fives? Or is it the same? Thankyou [:)] Cathryn ------------------------------ From: Myron Turner Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:33:25 -0500 Subject: [Baren 17947] Re: paint thinner There are good hand cleaners that can be found in automotive supply places used for getting grease off the hands. Also, there are products which can be applied to the hands in advance and make cleaning up relatively easy (you can get a tube from Daniel Smith--I've also seen it in automotive stores). I personally find that the surgical gloves are hard to get on and off (even with talcum powder), perhaps because I have large hands. I use gloves while inking the block and placing it on the press, and then I take them off when handling the paper, so that the paper stays clean. So, there's a lot of taking on and off. I use the gloves found in hardware stores--they are like the kitchen gloves but heavier duty and usually are not susceptible to disintegration from oils and paint thinners. They actually come in different grades of durability. Myron ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V19 #1808 *****************************