Doing something every day, whether it’s drawing or working out or taking time to center myself is something that has an inertia, once I get going, it can be hard to stop. The flip side, of course, is getting the flywheel spinning in the first place. Being a creature of repetition and habit as I am, it can take a force akin to gravity bending light to break me of my routine; for better or worse. In this case for the better: getting back to my daily page-fill drawings. Every damn day.

Seen above is the finished Mediocrates II, a woodcut long in coming. What is a woodcut? How does it work? I assure you it’s entirely too complicated. Or, rather, stupidly simple. Essentially, you’re inking up a relief-carved surface, the exact same way you made potato-stamps when you were a kid. But, registered prints like these are a bit more tricky. In a work like this, you print multiple different layers of ink on top of each other, each layer carved into wood and representing a different color and piece of the composition, like this:

This is hard to wrap my brain around, even with only 2 layers; with 2 colors printed, you actually get 4 colors to play with. In this case, you have Blue, Red, Red+Blue (Purple), and the color of the paper. With each additional layer for printing, the number of colors goes up “exponentially,” with 3 layers you get 6 colors, with 4 you get 11, and so on. Here’s a nifty little animated gif to show the drawing process, from sketch to finish.

After I get the different layers all kinked out, It’s time to carve into wood. In this case, two pieces of 20” x 30” Maple:

Finally, The printing. First blue ink, then the more-transparent red, like so:

And so, Bob’s your uncle. Or something like that. These were printed the most old-fashioned of ways, by hand barrin on a table (a-la-the japanese.) Soon, though, I’ll be moving the discussion more towards multiplicity, as we gear up an old but beautiful letterpress and start cranking out a few hundred prints an hour!

(One for the road…)

Really, why would I come back from this? Apparently, there is still stuff to be done. Like a complete re-work and update of the long-neglected artist site! Enough about that though. Shut up and check these people out: John Lee, Derrick Dent, Bee Johnson, Vincent Nappi,   and also Marie Provence.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with them and a number of other great illustrators while art directing for This Land’s ”Imaginary Oklahoma” series. Great fun and very educational experience. 

Yes, This Land does seem to have an all-consuming effect on me, as noted by several of you and my friends. Yes, I do need to take a day off, eventually. I think. However, The last cover is one worth checking out, as Dusting Brasel, one of our sales guys, bravely volunteered his chest for a digital tattoo. Check it:

This made also for some amusing staff photos:

Well, a simple post with pics this time ‘round. Coming up, I’ll have a bit more behind-the-scenes process talk for the stuff I’m doing at This Land, as well as some updates on the new letterpress shop here in Tulsa.