Rhino

I have not cut a side-grain woodblock for over thirty years and,

since I had only submitted my usual endgrain wood engravings

to Baren exchanges, I decided to take up the knife again. I have to

say that this was with much trepidation as I am obviously out of

practise. Also, I have to point out that there are still some engravers

in the UK who would regard this as "sleeping with the enemy".

Oh well - the bed looks nice and inviting. Move over - I'm getting in!

The block is from T. N. Lawrence. I knew that I would find it easier to

cut going with the grain, so I tried to draw the rhino in a way that would

follow the contours and also fit with the strict size and orientation

chosen for the exchange. I drew straight onto the block. Normally, when

I engrave, I make the minimum of marks and "draw" with my

engraving tool. This time, I wanted a drawing that had more detail than I

would actually use. A bit like a tightrope walker's safety net, I think.

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At this point, I left home for a few days at the coast, taking the block

with me. The days were very cold and it was nice to have an excuse to

stay inside and work. I used a mixture of tools. My knife is the "English"

rather than "Japanese" type. Most of my gouges are over fifty years old.

Some of the tools belonged to my grandfather, an exquisite worker in

wood as cabinet-maker and restorer, who married into the family of

William Blake - I was destined to be an engraver!

I found the cutting to be hard work which required a completely

different approach to engraving. From the start, I wanted to make

a print that was bold - an antidote to my normal attention to detail.

I was bound to make some slips and did - but without too much damage

to the block. I think that some of you would have wept with sadness

and/or laughter to see me hacking away at the block. I decided to finish

sooner than later, rather than carve the thing to death. I know that

there was more work that I could have done, but was really afraid

of going too far and making more of a mess than I had already made.

Here is a scan of the block before printing:

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Here are the printing details. The paper is a mould-made paper by

Zerkall. The ink is Lawrence's carbon black letterpress ink.

I printed the copies in a Vandercook proofing press. I inked more

heavily that I would with an engraving and enjoyed the fairly rich

black that resulted, rather than the more silvery/graphite effect I try to

achive with most engravings.

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Well, there you are. I'm not going to give up engraving but I will

make some more woodcuts. I learned a lot from this one

but there are a good few years of study to come!