continuation with relief based engraving

 

Wild Blueberries
hand-coloured resingrave relief print

During the summer I had some opportunities to continue adapting some of my small sketches onto both real end-grain wood surface (maple) and some older blocks of synthetic resingrave. 

Wild blueberries was based on my experiences in my region of the world where the mid to late summer these plants native to this region produce a lot of berries that the local fauna and many humans feast on. I also wanted to develop my skills with the engraving tools to create texture, lines and shapes in the composition that would be interesting and have a visual impact.

pencil sketch made on surface of a 6 x 9 cm (2.4 x 3.5 inches) rectangular resingrave block

permanent black marker traced over top of the pencil marks

inked rolled onto block surface to reveal progress while engraving

further engraving progress 

final proof in black oil based relief printing ink made onto 250 gsm white cotton rag paper

I also created three more engravings using 1.27 (1/2 inch) thick maple end-grain blocks that were gifted to me by a master engraver friend.

Two of these became exclusive hand-printed cards for my parents as a gift from me to them in honour of their 65th wedding anniversary. I printed and hand-coloured 10 of each design. The blueberries theme was repeated in a smaller print. I also used a rural landscape sketch made during a previous visit to the region where they reside. The blueberries would remind them of an earlier time in their lives when they met in this region and as a child was an annual tradition to head outdoors in August to pick berries for pies from nearby wilderness locales. 

pencil sketch on maple end-grain. I shaved back the top and right side edge to square the image.

dusting baby powder onto the surface to reveal engraving markings

black oil ink proof on paper

hand-coloured print 

Wellington County hand-coloured engraving 

engraved block progress proof

Dogwood
engraving with hand colouring