Chickadee - relief block engraving (hand-coloured)

 

Continuing the addition to my small songbirds of the boreal forest series of engraved surfaces that began with a small study of a red-breasted nuthatch click here I have a new work to share.

This time it's a black-capped chickadee.

This particular study like the former print again echoes the bird placement among tree foliage and the inclusion of hand colouring after drying of oil relief ink on paper (printed from the block). 

 The chickadee print is slightly wider but the same height compared to the nuthatch in block size. It is 6.25 x 9 cm (2.5 x 3.5 inches). To date I have printed 10 good images on heavier italian milled cotton rag paper. It will be an open edition so I can print more as needed off the block.

I won't go into written detail about process with a lot of words since it has been described several times in earlier posts found by using the search word engraving. Instead I will show photos of stages of creation that visually describe the process I use.

tracing from a basic soft lead pencil sketch and transfer to block surface

pencil sketch then had black permanent marker over top

a wash of thinned india ink was put over the marker image 

photo shows early stages of engraving using a scorper blade (top) and a spitsticker blade (side). After this photo I decided to cut incidental marks to create foliage

a progress proof on japanese paper

marker pigment removed using acetone

inked block on the press bed with runner bars on either side that paper will set on top

block surface inked and ready to print

adding watercolour wash during hand-colour stage

the final result

nuthatch and chickadee engravings on paper

I was recently gifted some damaged wood pieces by a fellow engraver (boxwood and maple) that I had cut by a local cabinet maker using a bandsaw to yield me a range of smaller blocks that were usable. I just hand sand the block edges to square them since the end-grain is delicate and requires special care for cutting into blocks from larger pieces.