ILLUS-3706

THE LARGE WOODCUT

Faculty: Lenny Long

Course Level: Junior, Senior, 5th Year

3 CREDITS

Woodcut has had a profound affect on the development of printing and has influenced many artists. Despite the simplicity of the medium, (requiring only a few simple cutting and inking tools and a wooden spoon to print the block), resulting prints are as individual as the artist who creates them. An artist is able to make many prints of their image, which makes woodcut great for experimenting with your ideas. Whether you enjoy work with a bold graphic quality or a delicate organic line, woodcut is an ideal medium for those who enjoy the physicality of materials.

This class will cover the basics of woodcut prints to gain an understanding of the three components of the process: color separation, carving, and printing. This class will focus on how to organize and print large scale, complex, nuanced multicolored woodcuts and reduction and multi-block techniques will be shown as a means of developing personal imagery. Students will be required to print complete editions of three woodcuts. The first piece will be a single color small print that explores different tools, mark making and developing an identical printed edition. The second will be a small multicolored image that deals with rainbow roll plate printing, reductive cutting, and separate blocks. This will familiarize students with printing as a team, color separation, registration of blocks and overprinting. The third piece will be a large multi- colored wood cut which requires time management and organizing the different sequences of printing to get the most mileage out of each run of the print. Students will work in teams of four to help each other print the final woodcut, with each student responsible for a specific aspect of the run. Coordination of fellow artists assisting with the print will be important to the success of the piece.