Here’s a deceptively simple wood engraving of a stylized face I’m working on right now.
It’s very small – 2.5 inches square. I’m enjoying the laying down of parallel lines in a manner that reveals form. In this small format every line, and cross hatch – either negative or positive – has an influence on the outcome of the image as a whole.
This is what happens when the press pressure is too great. A broken block!
Here’s a wood engraving commissioned for a new publication by the Center for Action and Contemplation, an institute run by Fr. Richard Rohr, a highly regarded Franciscan Mystic in Albuquerque, NM. The journal is called Oneing in addition to another called Radical Grace for which an earlier engraving of mine was used.
This wood engraving was to serve a dual purpose; to get back into making engravings and to create a Christmas card design. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I didn’t get it done in time for mailing although the sketch was ready and waiting. I’ll try again next year. Ultimately it was a joy …
It took awhile but I’ve posted all of the text from Iain Macnab’s book called The Student’s Book of Wood-Engraving published in 1938. I’ve included some wood engraving illustrations found in the book as well. Scottish artist Ian Macnab was the founder and principal of the famous Grosvenor School of Modern Art and was best …
Here’s a couple of woodcuts by JJ Lankes. Even though they aren’t wood engravings, his work does have the feel of an engraving rather than plank grain work.
He was born in Buffalo, New York in 1884. In his youth he trained and worked as a draughtsman before going on to study art at the Art Student’s League of Buffalo and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
As a happy consequence of a major reorganization of my woodworking shop I’ve collected all my boxwood scraps into one Rubbermaid container. They are not really cast-offs – naturally – but very useful to the block-maker. In fact, these bits could be looked upon as a kind of block-maker’s porn; very exciting stuff! I’ll be …