A Quick Woodcut: Chris the Frog

On Friday my Easton group had a great day tackling a woodblock print. Their results were excellent, some even managing two colours which is some going for just a few hours.
As a demo I had prepared a simple two colour print of a frog. Frogs are very much on my mind as they are all over the Garden at the moment.

Roughs and Colour notes:

frog-sket-bg frog-sketches-1-bg

Some thumbnail compositional sketches

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A decision..

frog-col-roughs

Colour roughs

The Print I had printed up a few variations of the Frog using the same very basic materials we would be using in the class, a spoon, a baren, computer paper, tissue paper, some cheap Japanese rice paper and basic acrylic printing inks.

frog plate

The woodcut plate, cut for the first colour

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The first colour proofed on thin rice paper.

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Various combinations of paper and inking with the second colour added.

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“Chris the Frog”: Woodcut on Japanese rice paper: Image A4

The frog is called Chris because I realised I had unwittingly cut a rather nice letter C in one of the spots.. it seemed fitting..

letter-c

In the garden there are still many tiny froglets around the pond fringes Mowing is a nightmare and very very slow.
I have to carefully pat the grass to alert them and help the very tiniest ones to get to safety.
The long grass must seem mountainous to them.. I rather know how they feel.

froglet

Here is one on the very tip of my grubby fingers.. I am wondering how they will survive the winter.
Summer seems to be rushing by, the days are shorter, evenings and mornings darker and I am very busy..:).. Busy is always good!

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One Comment

  1. How fun! And I Love frogs!! 🙂

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