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This was my first print day in May, so I wanted to challenge myself. I started relief printmaking with woodblock about a year ago. I’ve gotten a handful of woodblock relief prints finished in the year since, including starting to learn more about reduction printmaking and getting more involved with colors and ink techniques.

I started Print Day in May off by editioning a print I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks and hand-pulled four or five days ago. ‘Ponderosa Bluffs’ is a 4″x6″ woodblock relief print based off of a place in southern Utah where the mountains meet the desert.

The main course of the day was challenging myself to try and create a block print start-to-finish in a single day. In my attempt, I’ve now spilled over into May 3rd by now and am writing this while disoriented and sore from the last couple hours of focus. Based off of a sketch from July 2019, my subject was burn scars from a wildfire on the trunk of a Ponderosa Pine Tree in Leavenworth, Washington. This print was my first time working with linoleum.

I made new mistakes along the way and learned some lessons about working with linoleum. While the lino block was seemingly more forgiving than the woodblock during carving, I didn’t anticipate for the warp in the linoleum to affect the inking and printing process because I’ve been so familiar with working with a board-stiff flattened medium. I was able to pull one decent print of the linocut, but now I’m currently mounting the linoleum to a flat plate so that I can properly print an edition of the design.

It was a great day learning for my first Print Day in May. While the linoleum was fantastic to work with, I think I prefer the natural grain and feel of the wood. I uploaded a complete process video to my Instagram story at @biteoftoast. See more of my prints at www.biteoftoast.com. Already looking forward to next year!

– Gavin