Tiger Woodblock Printing

Back in June I made a woodblock carving for the annual Gopanwha Museum woodblock carving competition. Supposedly the competition, which has been held every November for the past seven years or so, was going to be held this year because of the upcoming Olympics here in S. Korea and the monk who owns and runs Gopanhwa was hoping to host special events this year in addition to the woodblock competition, so he had said the competition would be held some time in the summer. 

Well, so it was never held in the summer, probably because carving is certainly not a summer activity, and is much better suited to the colder wintry days. Well, that worked out well as I'm doing a daily painting challenge this November and would have had time only for one event -- either the carving or the painting. So I'm just inking the woodblock I carved before and counting it as my Asian painting contribution for today.

As for matter of inking, yikes! I'm terrible, but then I knew that last year too. There's hope on that account though. I was reading about Japanese woodblock artist Hokusai (c. 1760 - 1849, during the Edo period) and his probably his most famous piece, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and (according to Wikipedia) artists like Hokusai designed pictures, woodblockists carved them, inkists inked them, and then publishers (who then by rights owned them) printed them and I guess had them distributed and arranged for sales. Ah ha! So Hokusai, though he was apprenticed and trained as an engraver, didn't have to ink his own pieces .... Ah yes! There is hope for me!

Practiced and practiced and practiced inking ... and then it still didn't turn out very good. Ah well. I tried.

So here is my inked woodblock print. I tried several times and this was the best, but actually it was quite light so spent an hour carefully touching up parts with a happy dot Chinese calligraphy brush. I know that's cheating but I'm not too fond of this woodblock picture and don't expect to win, not even honorable mention like last time. However, I did carve a woodblock and so will participate in the event, especially as I already told the monk my woodblock was done and I would join.

"Tiger and a Drink of Water"
Tiger woodblock print
13" x 21" woodblock; the scroll 13" x 43"