Me and my woodgrain

I talked about my start in wood cut in my first blog so now I'm going to focus more on how I've come along and what I've discovered since then. The reason I've continued working with woodcut is because I have started focusing more on how the medium woks with my imagery. While working with color layering I discovered how beautiful the wood grain truly was and how much it emphasized the movement of my landscapes. For my first big woodcut, my main goal was to find a wood grain that I felt mimicked the layout and patterns I found in my landscape. I used the wood grain as a guide. I made my marks by following the pattern of the grain but also trying to represent the image. Since I worked so hard to seek out a wood grain that worked with my image, I decided it was foolish for me to cover up the visibility of the grain. This leads me to my most recent piece. I am experimenting with transparency; and for the most part it's working out wonderfully. I had it in my head that I needed to use opaque ink to transfer the grain or else it would never show up on the paper. I was right only to a point. It worked if I only laid down one color but as I continued to layer colors on top I would loose the grain. I've learned it is best to use thin transparent layers because it preserves the wood grain longer. I also had to figure out a way to make my layers thin, thin, thin. I always used a soft roller and had a tendency to over ink because otherwise I would find spots that didn't get inked up all the way. I found that just thorough rolling with a hard roller helped a lot. Rather than just slathering the entire image and getting a bold grain pattern, I am now able to see a subtle grain pattern that continues to pronounce itself with each thin layer I place on top. This is also really helping my image because the buildup of ink is not so bad. I'm excited to see if I can maintain the appearance of wood grain up until my last layers. I'm enjoying this process of push and pull. I'm learning a lot about what options I have and what textures I am able to create. For my next projects I am planning to create a series of small wood cuts and continue experimenting with color layering but also pushing my color pallet.