Cedars of Attingham - final print

After looking through various sketchbooks, I decided to revisit the subject that I looked at in the very first assignment - the beautiful cedars at Attingham Park. I have a wide range of drawings and paintings of these trees which I have visited regularly over a number of years.  They are very susceptible to wind damage and therefore change slightly most times I see them so, after a few extra drawings,  I settled on a very simple view of two cedars close together which, for me, sums up these very beautiful, ancient trees.  I also felt this subject was very suitable for Japanese woodblock.

 

I scaled up the chosen drawing and made a tonal sketch in sumi-e ink with the intention of translating it into a colour sketch.

 This reminded me of the proofs of the magnolia that was proofed in sumi-e ink on the course with Rebecca Salter in October and I decided to proceed with a tonal print rather than colour.

I traced the image to work out the tones and decided on 4 plates. The next stage was to transfer the images to 4 woodblocks, 

paying extra attention to the kento marks since this is the basis of accurate registration. 

Remembering Rebecca's and Sara's advice I made sure that my knives were sharpened at regular intervals and that I didn't carry on cutting too long as I had made mistakes in the past by cutting when tired

The paper requires several hours or overnight to evenly dampen so making the paper stack the night before the first proof was very important. Newsprint is wet with a brush and stacked, interlaced with the paper which is also wet on one side, finishing with three pieces of wet newsprint. The whole package is then wrapped in plastic sheeting and weighted down with a drawing board and left overnight.  In the morning, the printing papers should be evenly damp to the right degree - without any patches of shine

Printing the first set of proofs gave me the chance to try out the dilution of the sumi-e ink. It is very pale but gives a good depth when layered by the four plates. I printed each plate separately and then overlaid some to look at registration.

I used the individual plate proofs when cleaning the plates to indicate where I needed to clear and even to re-cut.

   The corrected plates after re-proofing require a little more cleaning . I like the sesame effect especially in the foliage but want a contrast with the trunks and branches so re-inked just the trunks on plate one using a small paint brush to apply the ink rather than brushing it in with the normal Japanese inking brush. This resulted in a thicker more even coat of ink, which when printed resulted in a more uniform and denser trunk - contrasting as required with the lighter foliage.  I think this effect adds to the print. 

The sesame effect or "Gomazuri" is an effect when the flat wash typical of traditional Japanese woodblock printing has not been achieved often through error.   It is now seen as a valid technique and can, and is, used as a positive decision but editions with consistent qualities are difficult to achieve over many prints.  After some more adjustments, I inked the trunks and branches with a small paint brush rather than the traditional brush while inking the leave clusters in the traditional manner. This resulted in a looser sesame effect which I feel adds to the print 


After more clearing I proofed again and tried out some Tosa Washi paper which I felt was most likely too thin for this technique. Tosa Washi is very thin and when damp, very unwieldy.  It slipped when I was trying to register it in the kento marks on the first block producing almost a ghost image where the paper touched the inked plate. Also the paper tore during burnishing. However the proof gave me the opportunity to try the technique of adding colour to the print through the back of the print - a technique that I intend to use more in the future.

 

The final proof after more clearing required some padding to keep the paper away from the parts of the plate I didn't want printed - this prevents some of the faint ghosts marks where the plate, where cleared, has swollen due to the dampness - the sumi-e ink is very liquid hence the wood swells in some places where the layers of ply are perhaps uneven.

I had proofed on Hosho paper from a pad which wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole plate with an even margin around the image.  I decided to print on some hand made paper brought back from Japan - the make and content unknown - and some Masa paper. The hand made paper was softer and absorbed the ink better than the Masa. The print clearly shows how the ink is absorbed by the paper rather than sitting on top of the paper as in traditional western methods of printmaking.

Reflections

• the simplicity of the design expresses how I feel about these beautiful trees.
• I feel the sesame effect enhances the image -  giving a different weight and texture to the foliage mass
• I have used Jo McChesney's prints as inspiration but have given my own slant to a much loved personal subject
• I am pleased with the grey tones of the sumi-e ink and this reminds me of the tone and colour of the print purchased from the artist who inspired this print,  but do intend to ink the plates in a blue grey in the future
• my cutting technique has improved over the course of the past few months and I feel the organic marks are particularly successful
• the registration using kento was successful and proved a very easy method to use
• I will continue to use hand colouring, particularly of proofs, as a well to identify different colourways
• I need to experiment with more paper samples in order to discover the papers that work for me and that give me the effects I want to achieve.