Preparing the Block

Several years ago I was rummaging around the home improvement center and came across some birch plywood for use on a project. As I sorted through the sheets it occurred to me that the surface would be perfectly fine for woodblock printing. On a lark, I bought an extra 2' x 4' sheet and stowed it away. Years later, this same piece of wood has resurfaced as the base for my new wood block print.

I ruled out the print area in pencil, and painted on a mixture of rubber cement, thinned to approximately 50-50 consistency with thinner, on both the block and the sections of the master drawing. The enlarged, flipped drawing was pasted to the printing block, and the thinned rubber cement would keep the drawing in place, yet allow me to peel cut sections away come printing time.

I had originally planned to print out the drawing on thin vellum, which would be easier to cut through to the block. However, the vellum sheets jammed the office laser printer so I had to resort to plain old bond. As I have come to find, the added thickness of the paper isn't really problematic, it allows me to peel sections away to review my work and repaste to continue. Here is the final drawing pasted to the printing block: