Hello everyone! This week I’ll be talking about making a print by hand (without a press) and why I love doing it! I chose to channel my love for Halloween for this project, and with the BEST HOLIDAY EVER (In my opinion) coming up in less than a week, what better time to carve a zombie into wood??

I chose to do a print for a class other than my Printmaking class, and I wanted to do a woodblock print! I chose to carve a zombie, and to make it look more rough and gritty, I wanted to print it by hand! Now, this process is pretty exhausting because of the labor that goes into this technique. You have to press really hard, and make sure the paper doesn’t slip in the process! So first, I inked up my woodblock with black ink (the color I chose to work with, makes it even more ominous in my opinion!) and then carefully laid my piece of paper on top. Once it was in place, I used my non dominant hand to hold the paper while my dominant hand started rubbing with a flat object, usually a baren. You have to rub really hard and make sure not to miss any spots or the finished print won’t look good. I had to do my print several times because I hadn’t pressed hard enough! It is a grueling process at times, and my arm was a little tired after. However, the end result was worth it! It was the perfect amount of spooky and mystery that I was looking for. Here’s my setup!

My print along with some of the tools I used to hand print it!

Have a safe and spooky Halloween everyone, and if you don’t celebrate the holiday, have a great week!