Woodcut and relief printing

Hand carving a wood cut.

Hand carving a wood cut for relief printing, one of the oldest printing techniques.

I chose an Iron man illustration I made previously and transferred it mirrored onto the wood plate by using a sheet of carbon paper. For the carving itself I used different sized tools.

Once the printing block was finished I used an ink roller to apply a layer of printing ink on the wood block. Only the raised leaving the carved parts clear of ink.

Then I placed a sheet of paper on top of the inked wood block andused another roller to apply pressure so that the ink would stick to the paper.

By using different colors of ink and different colors of paper a pop art effect can be created.