Living Prints® Woodcut On-line

Close-up of tracing

In the first tracing, I forewarned on-line visitors that tracing may take a long time. Then I showed a closer view. As I worked, I thought about subsequent steps--the choice of wood, the rubbing-off of the paper and, in particular, my choice of a ball-point pen for tracing, thinking the water-resistant quality of the ink might be an advantage.

In the Preface, I visualized the 17th century Chinese printing house, called the "Ten Bamboo Studio," that inspired the "Woodcut On-line" project for this Living Prints® series. I invite visitors to do the same. The subject for the woodcut is drawn from a book of the same title by Joseph Vedlich.

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  Tracing in this instance is with a ball-point pen, the water-resistance of its black ink may be an advantage later on. The study of this Chinese print, "Pine, Bamboo and Plum Tree," is for depicting pine needles for the artist's own work, "My ancestors and me".

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©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. ritchie@seanet.com