…or “How Frogman’s changed my (printmaking) life.”
5 color reduction woodcut, edition: 15, paper size: 22" x 30" (click to enlarge)
Returned from an amazing 1 week out at Frogman’s Print and Paper Workshop in Vermillion, South Dakota. And OMG I can now print in color…with colors in register!! I know it sounds simple, but I’d never perfected a foolproof way to do it (so I’ve always hand-colored black relief prints) until this fantastic workshop, called “The Big Reduction” taught by Nancy Palmeri, who is an incredible instructor as well as a fantastic artist. She taught us everything from how to tear and treat the paper, how to seal in the drawing before cutting, tips on cutting for reduction specifically so that slight off-register colors don’t show up, how to handle paper, inks…yeah, everything! I learned a ton, and seriously, it’s changed how I will be printing now.
Everybody in the class was given a 24″ x 32″ block of plywood, with which we had 5 days to do a multi-color reduction woodcut. Edition of at least 5. Amazingly, with almost nonstop work (we all spent most days/nights cutting and printing like crazy till midnight, at which time we had to leave as the studios were locked up), we actually each did it! All of the students were super hard-working and fun. It was great sharing a space with these madly cutting−woodchips flying−artists. Above, is the final print: 5 color, edition of 15 (printed 18, but 3 aren’t great) of one of my turkeys (click it to enlarge).
More pics from the class, including the different stages of a reduction wood block coming up.
