First Wood Cut

This is the first wood cut I've done and while it's taken me much longer to do than a lino cut, I like the results.

Wood is difficult because it can split or splinter when you're trying to cut details.  You have to be careful of the grain of the wood and know how to avoid all the wood carving pitfalls.  I did have a couple of small split-outs with this but they aren't so obvious and perhaps they even attest to the fact that this is indeed a hand carving.

Since I ran this test print, I did go back and do some tweaking.  Hopefully it's now ready for a print run.  After I make all I want, I'll break or burn the carving to prevent any more from being printed.

Sorry for all the space around the actual print.  I always leave a border to write the print #, my signature, etc. and in this case, the print was done on white paper. 

The tweaking I did consisted of deepening the line across the bottom so it would show up white in the print.  Hope it was enough.

Slight Change of Direction - Wood and Lino Cuts

As usual, when I'm in Creative Mode, I don't do a lot of blog posting!  And I've been doing more carving so have been trying both wood and lino prints.

My favorites have been the cows and only test prints have been made of all the 'cuts'.  When I have them all the way I want, I'll do limited edition prints all printed by hand.

Here are a few of the ones I've test-printed so far:

I'm working on another Beltie as well as another Highland cow.  Some I tried were way above my pay grade but I'm gradually growing into more detailed work. 

All of the above are lino cuts but I do have a couple of wood cuts in the works.  Hope to finish and post them soon!

Wonder what it is about knives that is so attractive to me?  Mu Waaaa Haaa Haaa!