Japan: A Learning Adventure for Families: Woodblock Prints

Remember the famous Mount Fuji woodblock print I had hanging in my upstairs hallway as a kid?

The cover on the journal I took to Japan is by the same artist, Hokusai. Can you spot Mount Fuji?

Monoburo is another famous Japanese artist. His woodblock print called "Beauty Looks Back" is so famous and beautiful it was on a postage stamp. (You know how I like stamps...)

I had a chance to make my own version of this print using REAL woodblocks. I bet you'll never guess where I did this project. At the airport!!! On my way home!!!

Although I've carved linolium to make a print, I've never printed with a woodblock. The blocks themselves were a rich brown but each was carved in a way so that only certain parts are raised to take the ink.

If you look down the art table you'll see it takes several steps to make a complete print. Each block applies only one color. The tricky part for me was lining up the paper perfectly on each block so the colors would transfer where I wanted them.

The black outline was first. The man helping me put on the ink. Do you see it sitting in the bowl? He painted it on with the small brush and smoothed it over the raised wood with a larger brush.

I placed paper on top and used a flat tool to rub the ink onto the paper. I tried to keep the tool as flat as possible. I didn't want the ink to smudge on other parts of the paper. You'll see at the end that my version of "Beauty Looks Back" has lots more black hair than the Monoburo's original. Ooops.

Next I rubbed on the orange ink. You can see it soaking through the paper a bit.

Check out the yellow! Bright!

The final step was to sign my name with a 'chop'. A chop is a Japanese character carved into the end of a small stone block. This is the traditional way many Asian artists mark their work.