Wood cut workshop

I attended a wood-cut workshop last night. Our teacher, Jan Terje Rafdal, is a very talented graphic artist.

Here he is in his studio. A very inspiring place, might I add. He is also a great painter, and you can see some of his oil-paintings here. 

Here he is showing some of his work, and how metal etching prints works. 

Here is the picture I had chosen to work with, taken in Paris this summer.

After I´ve reduced it from millions to three colors… 

Tracing the grey areas onto the MDF-plate.

Chizzeling away…

First layer done!

Mixing the print-color.

Getting ready for the first test-run through the press.

Adjusting the press….

First test-print in the middle-color. 

Here is a test-print with both layers, the white-grey-black photocopy, and the second wood-cut layer, all ready chizzled. 

And here is the final picture:

It was so much fun trying out this, to me, new technique. There is still some “dust”/traces of wood in the picture, and I have some prints without them, but we kind of agreed that this one looks more like a wood-cut, while the other one looked more like silk-screen. The print is 20×23 cm, and I never thought I´d be able to finish both layers in just 4 hours. 

Now THAT was a fun way to spend a Saturday evening!