As mentioned in my previous post on woodbock printmaker David Bull he is working in collaboration with Jed Henry on a series of woodblock prints from designs of Jed’s Ukiyo-e Heroes work. The Kickstarter project to fund both the digital/giclee side (Jed’s work) and the wooddblock print side (Dave’s work) was very successfull and will enable them to produce the complete Ukiyo-e Heroes works in both digital/giclee and woodblock print formats.
Production of the prints is proceeding well although obviuously making the woodblock prints takes much longer than the giclee prints. The delivery dates for production of the woodblocks prints extends out for nearly 12 months. To keep buyers up-to-date with the woodlbock print production progress Dave’s is regularly posting blog and video updates on his website http://mokuhankan.com/conversations/index.html. Among the video updates are 4 dealing with carving the key woodblock and colour woodblocks for the print Fox Moon. I’ve embeded those videos below as they provide a good summary of the woodblock production process.
Recorded in the Tokyo workroom of woodblock printmaker David Bull, the video belows shows the first stages of production of the next print in Jed Henry’s ‘Ukiyoe Heroes’ series – ‘Fox Moon’. It illustrates how Jed’s design – which comes to Dave in a Photoshop file – ends up on the surface of a hard cherry block, ready to carve.
The following video is the second video in the series showing the production of Jed Henry’s ‘Fox Moon’ design (from his ‘Ukiyoe Heroes’ series). It shows the three basic stages of carving the key block for the print.
The video below is the third episode in the series of videos showing the production of the woodblock print version of Jed Henry’s ‘Fox Moon’ design (from his ‘Ukiyoe Heroes’ series). This one show how the colour blocks are designed and carved.
Update:02/12/2012 – The fourth video (below) showing the woodblock print production process was added.
The fourth episode in the series documenting the production of Jed Henry’s Fox Moon woodblock print, this one shows Dave pulling the first proof copy. This is ‘real time’ – you see the pigments being brushed onto the wood, and the paper being rubbed, exactly as it really happens while making a print.
