Winter Prints

Racton Ruin

Sketch for Racton Ruin print

Last summer I trundled up quite a steep hill to look at Racton Ruin in West Sussex. It was a hot day, I was wearing flip flops (silly me) and I did wonder whether it was worth it for a few photos.
The folly was originally built for the 2nd Earl of Halifax, either as a summerhouse or as a place where he could watch his merchant ships docking at Emsworth. Today the crumbling brickwork has lost the flint stones which covered it, the four floors inside the 80 foot tower have gone and it's now covered in graffiti.  I made it to the top of the hill eventually and got my photos and ultimately my wood engraving print.

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Racton Ruin - wood engraving.

Unfurling

Drawing of sunflower unfurling

I used this drawing I did of a sunflower bursting into life up at my allotment. I'd wanted to try and do a wood engraving based around this and last week I finally got up the nerve to try it out. 

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Drawing on Lemonwood block and first cuts.

I know it's best to work on a darkend block but I started off by drawing on the block and inking it up. I made a few cuts but then realised I should darken it up with ink if I was going to be able to see the marks I was making so I applied a thin coating of watered down black ink and crossed my fingers that the drawing would stay visible. Luckily it did. 

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As always I was nervous of taking away too much wood  so I made a first proof print which was too dark. I painted over areas to show where I'd want to lighten areas and made more cuts before printing again. 

Final print on Hosho paper

The additional cuts to the block did enhance some of the  highlights and I got two or three reasonable prints on Hosho japanese paper. But now I've put the block aside for a while. I still think the image is too dark but I want to give myself time to work out how I can lighten some areas to give the print more definition without ruining the whole thing!