Ribble Valley Art Open Exhibition Update

Just a quick one.
The framed copy of my 'Ribble Valley Winter View' sold on the opening day of the exhibition!
I'm very pleased, and I hope the purchaser will be too. I'm selling unframed copies of the print in the Gallery/Museum shop.

Grace Prints - Proofing

I've just completed a day of proofing on my next set of prints, prior to final printing.

The images here are of all the blocks printed together to check registration, but I've also printed proofs of all the colours separately to make sure there are no stray areas of block which are catching the paper and leaving ink marks. So it's been a case of print a little, then knives out and clear a little.

Because the images are very clear and open (even simple, in a way) I've had to do more proofing than I've done on other prints. A mistake on such an airy image would really stand out, and I want to keep rejected prints to an absolute minimum, so proofing is time well spent.

I'm only using 2 colours and black for all these prints. The 2 tones of Ultramarine and Cadmium Red are being mixed directly on the blocks prior to each print. The lighter tones use much less pigment, but it's coming from exactly the same paint bowl as the darker tone. On previous prints I would have pre-mixed 2 shades of each colour in my paint bowls for each block.

The reason for this change in technique is thanks to David Bull's new eBook on woodblock printing, 'My First Print'. Don't be mislead by the title though. Even if you're long since passed your first print, there is a wealth of information on woodblock printing techniques for printmakers of all levels, and especially those who, like me, have learnt all they know so far only from books and the internet.

Dave's eBook contains video demonstrations and audio files, as well as written info and images, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this field, collector or printmaker.

I've realised I need to undo some bad techniques I've developed by not having a tutor to guide my learning.

I also had the honour to collaborate with Dave in a small way by creating some illustrations for the eBook using a cartoon version of Boots the Print Studio Cat which I designed for him.

More of that in another post.

Print and Sculpture in Exhibition

Recently I submitted a couple of woodblock prints and a sculpture for selection in the first Ribble Valley Open Exhibition. The exhibition is open to all artists of any media, the only criteria being that the artist be resident in the Ribble Valley area. (You'd be surprised how many there are!)

I received notification about a month ago that one of my prints, 'Ribble Valley Winter View', which some of you out there received as my Christmas print last year, and my sculpture 'Resting Figure' had both been selected for exhibiting.

My winter view print has been doing very well for itself, and is now in it's second edition of 60 prints. (I'm not a big fan of artificially limiting my prints to force the price up. Prints are a democratic medium, and as such, should be printed and priced with the same philosophy.)

I was asked if it could be featured in an article in the English language Japanese magazine, 'Japan Close Up' . They wanted to do a piece on foreign artists who were inspired by Japanese art, and found me on Etsy!

Susan Ashworth, of the Lancashire Museums Organisation (co-curators of the Ribble Valley Open)which manage all the museums and art galleries which fall within Lancashire County Council's responsibility called me a couple of weeks ago to ask if they could buy a copy of the print for the Lancashire Museums' permanent collection, which was great. I now have one of my prints in the collection of Lancashire's art gallery archives. I'm happy to admit it quite made my day! When Susan arrived to collect the print, she also bought one for herself, and mentioned that they're considering printing a postcard or Christmas card of the image at some time in the future.

I've included a copy of the back and front of the poster/leaflet for the exhibition. The sculpture in the image is mine.

It's made from cast concrete (about 12 inches high and very heavy) and patinated to look like bronze. The sculpture was originally created in clay, from which a 2 piece plaster mould was created. The clay was scooped out, and the mould cleaned, before very carefully pouring a finely mixed concrete into it. When the concrete has dried, the plaster mould is very carefully chipped away to free the cast sculpture which is cleaned and finished.

The technique results in only one sculpture from the waste mould, and the clay original is also destroyed during the process which makes the finished sculpture a unique one off.

I have one framed copy of the print in the exhibition for sale, and 50 unframed woodblock prints from the same edition packaged for sale in the Museum/Gallery shop. The exhibition runs all the way through until the 10th of January next year, so I'm hoping some of the visitors would like the print as a little Christmas stocking filler.

Key Blocks Completed for New Prints

I've just finished cutting the key blocks for my next set of prints.

I've decided, for personal family reasons to call them 'The Grace Quartet' and they're closely based on images I found on the internet from an 1860's Japanese woodblock print book of pictures attributed to Hiroshige. The images are certainly in his style, but whether they were actually by him, I'm not sure.

As you'll be able to see from the photo of the colour blocks, which I'm now starting to clear, the images are fairly monochrome, either blue or peach. The blue irises will have a large graduated tone in the background.

Each of the 4 prints are approx 5 x 7 inches, and as you can see, I'll be printing 2 images at once, something which I do quite often as it's a good economical use of materials and time. It was also common practice in Japan where a block could contain a number of individual prints which would be cut down later.

Spare time has been thin on the ground this year for printmaking, but I'm hoping to get this set completed in the next month or so. Then it's on to my annual Christmas/Winter print. I'll post some really good news about my 2008 Christmas print in the next few days.

Grandad's Japanese Painting

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that my late Grandad, Stanley Mason had an interest in Japanese art. I didn't really know about this until recently when I was talking to my Dad about him, and the pictures I remembered hanging in his house.

One of those was one which I was suprised to hear he had painted himself in the late 1950's. It's now owned by my Cousin, but she was kind enough to email me a copy, which you can see here.

I've been told he was friends with a Japanese gentleman he knew in Liverpool at the time (I wish I could trace him) who helped him.

He also took a lot of landscape photos, mainly in the Lake District and wanted his compositions to have a Japanese style to them (most probably Hiroshige) and as such never wanted people to be looking into the camera, but rather looking into and responding to the landscape around them. Much to the annoyance of my Granny, apparently.

So, the question arises, is there any connection between my Grandad's interest in Japanese art and mine? Is it just a coincidence? Lot's of people who aren't related to me obviously like it; but is there, perhaps, something in the way my Grandad's brain and mine that made us almost predisposed to be attracted to Japanese art and prints, and for us both to want to create our own art based on it?

I don't know. I have a vague, unformed theory of something I call Hereditary Memory. Memories or feelings, which, like physical and mental attributes are perhaps passed through the generations. The reason why some people feel inexplicably called to the sea or the countryside because our ancestors were probably either farmers or fishermen. My Grandad's father was a printer and print compositor as well.

My Grandad was a fascinating man. While living in Liverpool he was very closely involved with the Folk music clubs and, so I have been told, played a part in Paul Simon's first UK visit as a young unknown singer songwriter. My cousin has a set of old reel to reel recordings of Paul Simon's performances in the Folk clubs which I've never heard.
In Paul Simon's song, 'Homeward Bound' (which he wrote while sitting at Widnes Railway Station during that first UK tour) are the lines '...every step is carefully planned for a poet and a one-man band...' and I like to think he's refering to my Grandad there. It's also slightly amusing to think that my Grandad played a part in making Paul Simon miserable enough to write that song!
Curiously, here's a print from a Japanese woodblock print book I saw online recently which looks just like my Grandad.

Woodblock Print Cost Calculator

One of the biggest questions for anyone produces artwork is 'how much do I charge?'

With animation the answer is always, 'How long is a piece of string?'

There are a myriad of things which can alter the cost of animation: complexity of design or action, illustration style and deadlines are just really the tip of the iceberg. You need as much information from the client as possible in order to calculate the cost.

With woodblock printing it's a little different. You have the materials, your time and what you consider your artistic worth.

So, how much do you charge for a print? What is the break even point where, even if you don't make a profit, you can cover the cost of materials and your time?

I wanted to work this out in a way that I can apply to all the prints I've produced to date, and the ones in the pipeline, and so I've put together an Excel spreadsheet 'Woodblock Print Calculator'.

Here's a screen grab of part of the first page.

I've tailored it to work the way I work, which I've standardised to make the packaging and shipping of prints easier. At the moment my prints either fit A4 or A5 cello bags, although the actual print size may vary.

As you can see, I can enter the title of the print, how many prints I intend to produce, how many blocks I will use, and how many colours (or impressions) there will be.

An 'A5 Twin' is my name for 2 prints cut on the same set of blocks, which cost less to produce than 2 A5 prints on separate blocks.

Based on this information and prices of blocks, paper and other materials which I've added, the spreadsheet works out the actual cost of materials to produce an edition, and a single print.

It will also work out my packaging costs, and my labour costs (based on any yearly income and hours you input) for the whole process from design to slipping the finished print into the cello bag.

It's taken a while to work out the formulas in Excel which run in the background, but I can now accurately cost every print I produce, even down to adding a % profit mark-up and including VAT.

The good thing is that I can continue to add new materials to include in the calculations and update any changes in material costs with one click, and the spreadsheet will recalculate all the totals.

I've also added a 'Reprint?' button, which, if you enter 'y' (yes) will remove any of the materials and labour costs related to design, cutting blocks, creating hanshita etc.

Sheet 2 of the calculator is a 1 page summary of all the total calculations which you can print off as a handy reference.

I'm pretty confident that I've got all my calculations right, and the Woodblock Calculator does work for me. I suppose this is Version 1.0 and in the future I'll add extra bits. I'm sure any woodblock printer with basic knowledge of Excel (or a friend of a printer!) could tailor it to suit their work practices too.

If you'd like a copy, let me know and I'll email the Excel file.

Save Kids TV

Please have a look at this...

...and then spend a little time at Save Kids TV

Production of children's TV in the UK has been going through a rough time recently, and the muddy grey cloud of economic gloom hasn't helped either. Look closely at a lot of the shows around at the moment, are they really UK produced shows? There are a lot of obviously imported shows from the US and abroad, but there are a lot of kids shows that may look like they come from the UK, but are actually produced abroad. Just because the voices sound like they come from the UK, don't assume that all the animation or the animation production company comes from the UK.

Where are the UK made children's programmes and animation that ooze and smell of the UK? I'm ashamed to say that you won't find many, or any on the UK tv channels.

I love animation, and I love creating stories for our children. In the past UK TV company executives had the confidence to let creative programme makers get on with what they were good at. There was trust, and there was a feeling that it was important to reflect our little UK world to our children to make them feel more like a part of it. The daft things, the eccentricities of life on our little island, the weird little things we do here that no-one else in the world does. Not the big bland pan global beige stuff that saturate our screens.

Culturally significant children's animation shows are much more important to developing a sense of connection and belonging to your home country than most people realise.

Our view of the world and how we fit in is shaped by the things we're exposed to as a child, even more so now with today's children and the broadcast media they're exposed to. There's nothing wrong with viewing the big wide world, but it matters that a child knows the feel and smell of it's own doorstep. Children's TV in the UK should be the secure home doorstep from which they can look out on the world. UK Children's TV made wholly by UK programme makers is vital to our children's understanding of who they are.