I’ve Got Wood…

…..and I know how to use it :).

I’ve got a stack of plywood offcuts hanging around the studio so I thought I’d do some woodcuts from my sketches. I’ve decided to work on male nudes for the foreseeable future and I’ve just completed a series of three very large manier noir drawings, including one from the sketch above. So now I’m going to develop the three images into woodcuts as well. Here it is at the start, reversed and transferred onto plywood, ready to start hacking away. I usually use PVC signwriter’s foamboard or traditional lino for block printing, so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge using wood but I’ve got some cracking cutting tools and a top class sharpening strop so I’ll give it a go. I’ve also been reading up a lot on the German Expressionists, who loved their woodcuts, so I’m in illustrious company.