Woodcut Portrait – Manga Style – Hand Painted with Watercolors

This is a post from Belinda Del Pesco’s Art Blog Belinda Del Pesco.

Carving a Stylized Manga-Inspired Woodcut Portrait

Have you ever made a woodcut? It’s the same process as carving and printing a linocut, except it’s carved and printed from wood. This is a doodle-turned woodcut portrait, inspired by Manga art, and hand colored with watercolor and colored pencils. If you’d like to try one, you can get the shina wood at McClains.

Woodcut and Linocut Tutorial List

• My friend Graham Stephens runs Diode Press, and he has a series of linocut printmaking tutorials for beginners over on his YouTube Channel.
• Rich Fowler runs a very informative printmaking blog called Boarding All Rows. Have a look at his post covering Linocut Techniques, Tools and Supplies.
• Do you know about The Kahn Academy? Check out this series of videos assembled by the Museum of Modern Art in New York featuring Phil Sanders discussing relief printmaking process and history.
• Modern Met posted a nice link-round-up of relief printmaking supplies, resources and how-to videos over here.

Engage Your Creative Brain

Learning how to make art in a new way is a Refresh Button for our creativity. We busy our hands, comprehend new things, and express ourselves at the same time.

Learning a new art-making method also expands neuropaths and makes our brains stronger. Plus, we’ve got something new to show for our efforts; a block print, a watercolor or a drawing, etc.

If you’re in the Baby Boomer generation, studies show that we can handle responsibility and hard work like pros, but we’re fearful about learning new stuff (technology, online banking, using Uber or AirBnB, etc.). Why are we fearful? Because we can’t tolerate being beginners.

We need to know how to do things, instantly, in order to stay engaged. In other words, we feel dumb if we don’t get it right the first time, so we either avoid new things, or toss in the towel after the Intro. What say you on this matter?

Avoiding the Learning Curve

I’m fascinated with what makes each generation tick. And I’m intrigued by this Beginner Avoidance trend. Are you an avoider of new things? Are you interested in making art with new methods? Do you stall over starting a new project for fear that you “don’t know how”?

If so, take comfort in a handful of truths; 1) every single one of us is a beginner when we try new things, 2) youtube is your 24/7 private teacher when you have process questions and 3) it’s only art. You’re not performing lifesaving surgery on a puppy. Jump right in.

You’re just carving an image, inking a block, and pressing it to paper. If it doesn’t work, toss it, and make another one. Really and truly. Have some fun. You deserve it.

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post!

Belinda

Art Quote

It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently – that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born – and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.

” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener nofollow”>Anne Lamott

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