February 01st, 2016

Happy and snowy February 1st to everyone.  Yes, it is February and things are going well.  A woodblock printmaking class by Ms. Theresa Haberkorn  started on January 11th at Art Student League and today is already the last session of the four. Woodblock (woodcut) printmaking has been the most familiar printmaking technique to me as a Japanese yet when I become the one who "make" a print by the technique, believe me I was totally blank and felt as if I was sitting in a class of the first grade! My brand new Japanese curving tools arrived on time for the class from Oregon which are sufficient varieties for now but I will surely look for more in Japan when I visit there in this spring.  The first assignment for the class, which we had to create an image/design in one color (black & white), was quite challenging. I suppose it was because I had been so used to layer with designs and colors on my monoprint printmaking techniques by then.  So when I had to produce a print with only one color, precisely only with negative and positive spaces, oh boy I got blank again!  The image here is my second assignment for the class, a two/multicolor print print, thank god!  I decided to create the print with something simple and clean design and wanted to add a few colors.  I am not sure if it is well showing to you or not but I also layered the with a collagraph plate I had made before as a background.  I titled the print, 'Basketful.'  Yes I must learn so much more but I will surely be enjoying every step of it. 

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