Simply Barnyard Goose

This is one of the quickest block I have carved in the animal series.  Only a few details remain,  so the majority of cutting is removing those areas that will not receive ink for printing.  As I mentioned in my last post, it was important to removed pretty substantial pieces of this block so that the final print was clear and free of stray/random ink marks.  The first chunk to go was the lover right hand piece that still had potential to be used for another, small project. 

Barnyard Goose - Modify the block with the goal of achieving a series of clean goose prints when the final carving is complete.

It wasn't long before I realized that almost all of the non-essential material would need to be removed if the final print was going to work.  It's a good things that I left a few of the vertical feather lines on the neck, otherwise a clean print would have have been impossible.  Why, you ask?????  Without the vertical lines suggesting  feathers, the space between the right and left edges of the neck is very wide; it is as large as the piece removed from the lower right had corner.   In the places where the "V" shaped cutting blade did NOT gouge into the material as deep, the crests that remain would easily pick up ink.  This problem is even more intense if a very narrow roller (like the one in the blog header image at the very top of this page,) is used for inking.  With the narrowest of rollers, the edge ridges of the neck lines are too far apart to float both sides of the roller.  Once one side of the roller drops down into the interior of the neck, ink is transferred to all crests in the area.  It is almost impossible to keep the paper being printed on from touching some, or all, of these inked crests.

Two strategies might help avoid this problem - but neither is a sure thing:  The first strategy is to use a wider roller for this type of block.  The outer edges of the roller would need to extend complete outside BOTH sides of the block being inked.  The second strategy is to print on an extremely rigid paper, such as a 500 series Bristol; again, no guarantees, but these two strategies might help.  The down side, primarily in using Bristol paper, is the lower quality of the print,and the greater challenge if the next step is to hand color or paint.  

Barnyard Goose - Emphasis on the material removed to increase the likelihood of an clean, acceptable final printed image.

As with all forms of creative expression, a combination of planful creation, sequential experimentation, and willingness to "try something different" is beneficial!!!