How an artist woodcuts wood!

Woodcuts and linocuts are made in a similar way. You have a flat piece of your chosen medium, then you cut out the parts where you don’t want that colour of ink to go. I’ll take you through the creation process of a piece I’m currently working on called ‘The Shaman’.

Here I have started to cut out the yellow plate.

It takes a while but eventually I get to the stage where the plate is ready.

This is done for every colour in the print. Your image needs to be fairly accurate so that the colours print in the correct spot. As this is a two colour print, I only need two plates.

Once all your plates are ready the printing can begin. After running a couple of colour proofs I’m happy with the registration of the plates. The first colour goes down well.

I let the ink dry for a bit and then come back and add the final colour. With practice you eventually get beautiful prints like this one!

Once these are dry, I sign and number them and hopefully there is a mad rush by people who like my art to purchase themselves one of these prints!