Craa-ack! As relief print artists we don’t talk often about the mistakes, accidents, or failures that lead us to a final composition, color choice, or resolution. Or how those accidents sometimes have nothing to do with aesthetics, rather they were hard lessons about materials, physics, chemistry, patience, and/or common sense. So, I’m going to share my most embarrassing wood engraving mishaps with hopes that we can have a great discussion, learn from others’ mistakes, and swap disaster stories! – Joanne Price

Anyone is welcome to join the conversation (you don’t need to be a WEN member) — bring your disaster stories and your questions — this should be a cracker!

If you missed this exciting event, WATCH THE RECORDING: https://youtu.be/PCPx51ni1E4

Find out what disaster struck this reductive self portrait…

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Wood engraving creates fine details with bold woodcut characteristics, perfect for adding illustrations to letterpress cards, artist books, graphic novels, comic books, broadsides, or as stand-alone images. Learn to cut your own original drawings into miniature end-grain hardwood blocks and print them in a limited edition. Instruction will cover materials, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving and proofing. It is the perfect at-home print process – portable, meditative, no printing press is necessary and now with water soluble oil based inks, clean up is safe and easy at home.

Join me in a way that meets your level of comfort and needs in 2021: year 2 of a global pandemic:

In-Person Wood Engraving Intensive at John C. Campbell Folk School August 1 – 7, 2021

Join me for a week-long wood engraving workshop at the John C. Campbell Folk School August 1 through August 7, 2021.
We will use the Folk School’s printing presses and airy, spacious, and light-filled print classroom among the mountains of North Carolina.
This is a great course for beginners and intermediate skill levels. No previous experience is necessary, but it is helpful to previous drawing experience.

This will be an in-person course with precautions taken for Covid-19. Register by calling 1800-365-5724. OR visit the course listing online to register: https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=23617

Wood Engraving: Virtual Live and Recorded Instruction (8-hours total), 4 Wednesdays: June 2 through June 23, 2021.

Learn to cut a design into end-grain hardwood blocks through a combination of pre-recorded video demonstrations and live meetings via Zoom. Each participant will receive a class kit prior to the workshop. Instruction during 4 sessions covers material basics, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving, DIY printing, plus Pro tips and tricks.

This is a great course for beginners and intermediate skill levels. No previous experience is necessary, but it is helpful to have some previous drawing experience.
Perfect for those who have difficult schedules – all live class meetings will be recorded and available for viewing (streaming only) during the workshop and a couple weeks after until July 11, 2021. So you can watch any classes you missed at anytime!

Held via Zoom Wednesday nights 8pm–10pm ET: June 2, 9, 16 and 23

For specific supplies information and to register < click the underlined text

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Wood engraving creates delicate, fine details with bold woodcut characteristics, perfect as stand-alone images, or as illustrations to letterpress holiday cards, artist’s books, or posters. Learn to cut your own original drawings into end-grain hardwood blocks and print them in a limited edition. Instruction will cover all parts of the process – materials, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving, and proofing. All levels welcome – some drawing experience helpful, but not required.

This class is designed for beginners and intermediate students of wood engraving — you’ll learn everything you need to know to cut your own original drawings into end-grain hardwood blocks and print them in a limited edition. Frogman’s Print Workshop is an institution — an organization that is known as a crossroads for print cross-pollination and print networking.

You’re not just learning a new print skill at Frogman’s – you’ll have a FULL in-person experience including special activities including a faculty lecture series, open portfolio viewing sessions, gallery crawls, and costumed bowling tournaments. Expect barbecues, pool parties, karaoke, fireworks, and free concerts. The workshop will culminate in a very special final banquet. More information regarding these activities will accompany your confirmation packet. Be prepared for anything!

Sign up today on Frogman’s website: http://frogmans.net/workshop-info/#price

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After finishing the engraving, the block was printed on the very same printing press that Melanie VanHouten (JSP Artistic Director) helped me move into my studio on a frigid day in January 2017! The “Thank you” cards received the same royal treatment as the engraving – going through sketches, color and font selections – before a final design was selected. While the card was digitally designed, the printing process is the same as the engraving — printed on my 1925 Chandler & Price clamshell press. For a sculpture park, I wanted to get a really nice embossment of the design in the paper — creating a sculptural relief — from relief printmaking! The card’s paper, Flurry, is made using wind and hydro energy — responsible environmental choices are the default for Starpointe Studio and JSP.

Photograph of the old tobacco barn – ant’s eye view. (Photo credit to Joanne Price, June 7, 2018)

Panoramic photo with newly planted trees and soon to be planted native flowers and grasses for prairie restoration on the south side of the driveway to Josephine Sculpture Park. Photo credit to Joanne Price, June 7, 2018.

One of several sketches first submitted to Artistic Director, Melanie VanHouten, for approval.

After making some changes to the drawing/composition, a final sketch is ready to be transferred to the 3 x 4 inch endgrain Maple wood block for engraving.

The end grain block with drawing transferred and engraving process begun. The surface of the block is toned with black printer’s ink to help my brain remember that what I carve away will be white. Some elements of the drawing are further clarified and/or decided as I engrave.

Further progress on engraving. The white is a chalk I use to help me see the lines better. In wood engraving, the block is cut by hand with tools called burins – one tiny line/mark at a time.

The finished print displayed above the engraved block. Notice that the image is reversed.

And finally the green part of the “Thank you” card being printed on my 1925 antique printing press.

And then, 2019’s end of the year thank you note to donors (who gave over a certain amount) received a handsome bookmark with part of this image — printed directly from the woodblock with some hand-set metal type. Josephine Sculpture Park is a favorite place of mine — supporting art in Kentucky, serving a largely rural area, creating a space where science and art can come together (ie: NASA Museum Alliance Night Sky Tours, Frankfort Audubon Society programming), and JSP’s commitment to nature and art education, and sustainable land stewardship. JSP supports all the things that I love and believe in! If you’ve never visited JSP before — you should visit now — they are open everyday, 365 days a year. Find the sculptures I used in the print! Hint — they are not where I have drawn them.

Illustration with hand-set metal type.

Front and back of the 2019 “thank you” bookmark.

The post Josephine Sculpture Park Special Commission Project! appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

Register today!

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Join me for a weekend wood engraving workshop at Asheville BookWorks (Asheville, NC) Friday, Dec. 14 (5pm–7:30pm), Saturday Dec. 15 (10–5) and Sunday Dec. 16 (10–5). Wood engraving is your secret weapon for creating detailed images while retaining the bold relief characteristics of woodcut and linoleum. This process is perfect for adding illustrations to holiday cards, artist’s books or broadsides or to create a stand-alone image. Students will get to know the tools, materials, printing process, and history of wood engraving through hands-on projects and demonstrations. This intensive course will give participants the basic skills to create a unique wood engraved print. And with a print exchange at the end of the workshop, you’ll find the perfect opportunity to start your own art collection! All skill levels are welcome.
Register HERE

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– A Jackalope in black & white — a woodcut interpretation of the mythological wild-west-beast.

– An illustration for Wells Book Arts Center’s fifth chapbook, Negative Compass by Bret Shepard.

– And three wood engraved illustrations for the University of Kentucky King Library Press’ upcoming letterpress publication, “Ma non e una cosa seria” (But it’s not really serious, 1917), a Luigi Pirandello play translated from Italian by Ann Colcord for the University of KY’s King Library Press. A comedy in three acts following a wealthy womanizer and the homely/humble manager of a boarding house. The book will be available late 2018 from the King Library Press.

The post Cool Inspiration – New prints! appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

“For me, wood engraving’s intimate scale and slow pace provide a welcome respite from our cyber-fast world. The tactile nature and physicality of the relief printmaking process is satisfying. The strokes of my tools reveal the light, with the image slowly emerging from a darkened surface. It is charmingly mysterious and feeds my need for quiet concentration and hands-on creative productivity.” – Joanne Price

Wood Engraving (also known as Xylography) was developed in the late 18th century by Thomas Bewick (1753–1828), an artist and naturalist in Northern England. Bewick made his living doing commercial graphic design work, much like modern day designers do – making ads, business cards and logos combining image and text. Bewick engraved both cooper and wood, but excelled in the latter. From the 1830s – early 1900s, wood engravings dominated illustration in newspapers, magazines, and in books with demand for increased edition sizes. The demands of the Industrial Revolution created a medium that could be as detailed as copper engraving, able to withstand thousands of impressions and could be printed at the same time as the text. This reduced the printing time, labor, and cost of illustrating text.

Once photographic techniques gained a broader foothold in workshops, the creative engraver in commercial realms declined, but the relief medium as an art form truly blossomed in the early 1900s.

Come discover this medium, steeped in its history, utilized in a computer age, with me!

I’ll show you how I cut my original drawings into endgrain wood. I will demonstrate how I ink and print my wood blocks. I’ll also talk about the history, the tools and materials, as well as contemporary resources and examples. 

Price is nationally known for her wood engravings and is president of the Wood Engravers Network, an organization that fosters education and creates a resource for wood engravers. She has led wood engraving workshops throughout the country, has exhibited widely and teaches printmaking at the University of Kentucky.

The post Wood Engraving Demo at Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea August 11 appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

• Starpointe Studio will be selling print and bookish items in the vendor area – come say hello!
• You’ll also see my large woodcut, Buffalo Central Terminal for a second run under the steamroller, and available for sale too.
• Participate in a print tradition with The Little Free Print Exchange! The only rule with the Little Free Print Exchange is “Take a Print, Leave a Print”—bring your 8 x 8 inch (or smaller) print to swap — come early to get your favorite!

Continue Buffalo Bookfest’s celebration of summer and get intimate – with Wood Engraving!
Join Joanne Price of Starpointe Studio on Sunday July 8, 10am–4:30pm for a taste of this intricate and historic craft. The delicate details, and bold woodcut characteristics of wood engraving are perfect for adding illustrations to letterpress cards, artist’s books, broadsides or to create a stand-alone image. Learn to cut your own original drawings into end-grain hardwood blocks and walk away with a summer-themed collaborative poster!

Register HERE

The post Hot Stuff at Buffalo Bookfest – July 7 & 8! appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

The first course will be at the School of Visual Concepts (SVC) in Seattle Friday June 22, 10am–4pm. In addition to the wood engraving workshop, there will be a bonus visit to the University of Washington’s Special Collections to view and discuss wood engravings from the collection with curator, Sandra Kroupa on Wednesday June 20 at 3pm AND an exhibit of my engravings at SVC! I hope you’ll join me and veteran engraver, Carl Montford (founder of Rain City Engravers and Montford Press) for a summer-themed dark-art fling! Register today – spots will go fast!
Register HERE

The second course will be at the Western New York Book Arts Center (WYNBAC) amidst downtown Buffalo’s vibrant renewal. The workshop will be held , Sunday July 8th, 10am–4:30pm, the day after BookFest (which you also won’t want to miss!). I honestly don’t know the last time wood engraving was taught in Buffalo – after Frank Eckmair‘s (Buffalo State College Professor Emeritus) influence — maybe in 1995? Join me in reinstating a vibrant graphic tradition in the second (only to NYC) most influential “gateway” city! Us Rust Belt cities need a wood engraving mantra — come on Pittsburg, Cleveland, and Rochester residents — I encourage you to participate!

Register HERE

Buffalo City Hall, wood engraving

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