Woodcut tulip
Images of a Japanese woodcut that I worked on over the Summer. The woodcut is in four colours and I found the most effective way to do the registration was to print the flower and stalk first and the background second. The best way for me to be as accurate as possible with registration was to line up the long edge of the paper with the kento marks and then drop down the shorter edge.
I bought a sample pack of printing paper from Intaglio Printmakers to test out how the print looked on different paper. I found that certain papers absorbed more water from the watercolour. My favourite paper so far is Kozo Natural Select, the pulp used in the paper comes from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree.
The woodcut is cut into Shina plywood, quite a soft wood which makes it easier to cut. I left an area in the background block which would appear white when printed which would allow the foreground colours to show up. The foreground images were slightly larger so that they would register as correctly as possible when printed.
