PRINTING A WOODCUT:
THE JAPANESE WAY

Living Prints ‘N Video Pioneers

Summary: When the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him a VCR as his Printmaking Fellowship, Bill Ritchie decided to try to make a video that was entertaining and instructional at the same time. Transcription Copyright 1997 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

Ritchie voice-over: Hi, my name is Bill Ritchie, and I made the videotape you about to see in 1974. I apologize for not giving you the new video at this time.

I want to take two minutes before the tape starts and ask you to close your eyes and try to visualize what I am going to describe. I’m twenty five years younger, and just beginning my career in multimedia arts. I had been teaching at the University of Washington School of Art and in a few years I was given the opportunity to videotape my teaching.

One thing led to another until I was doing as much in videotaping as I was in printmaking! Some students even thought I was leaving printmaking, but I never did.

The National Endowment for the Arts gave me a Fellowship in 1974. I spent part of the money on printmaking and part of it on video. What you are about to see is one of the tapes from my first VCR. So in your picture of me, you see an ambitious, experimental young college art professor in the early 1970s, working in my basement printmaking studio.

As you visualize me, see me working all alone, with no one to aim the two cameras I have set up on tripods or run a little video switcher beside my printmaking table. Think of the difficulty I might expect since I can’t read a script and I have no director to tell me to speed up.

Then, as you watch this tape you will hear a pre-recorded sound track of people coming in the studio - though they are all my voice - and asking questions, coughing and generally being nuisances. However, the idea worked; I knew from the questions that I was going too slow to finish before the twenty minute reel of tape ran out.

Now, please enjoy - and learn about - Printing a Woodcut the Japanese Way.

Ritchie’s voice-over: Well, here we go. I’ve got my studio all set up here for a demonstration in Japanese woodcut or Sosaku Hanga. And all around my studio I have TV cameras and a videotape recorder, and I’m going to try to make a twenty minute tape on the way in which a woodcut can be printed hopefully all inside twenty minutes. I’ve also taken the liberty of pre-recording an audio tape to play in the background. I’m all alone and maybe that audio tape will cheer up things around here a little bit.

This is a baren. The baren is a critical tool for the printing of Japanese woodcuts. This is a student baren I bought from the Yoseido Gallery in Tokyo. They can also be purchased from Toshi Yoshida. They are not the same as the traditional baren-this has a plastic back. But it has a traditional bamboo covering. And if you see the light catch these concentric rows of bumps. Those serve to . . . (sound of ripping paper interrupts the words) . . Those serve as little points of pressure that’s needed in printing the print.

The purpose of this tape is primarily to acquaint the student with all the essential ingredients, items, tools for making the print. (Sound of water filling a pan). First of all, if you don’t have a sink handy, you need a pan of water.

And you need that within reach, in a handy place. Next of course you need your woodcut plate. And that plate should be dampened all over with water, both sides. The reason for this is that, a dry piece of wood, if it is only wet on one side, will tend to curl up, won’t it? So you wet both sides.

Now, that can be getting wet (soaked). This brush is actually intended for sizing primarily--sizing paper--but it’s very handy for damping paper and for just applying broad washes of water. A sponge works just as well.

This piece of paper is just newsprint is the same size as the block. And if you wet this piece of newsprint on both sides, and then put the wood block on top of it, the wood block won’t slide around when you’re printing it later on. So keep a wet piece of newspaper underneath the block. Like so.

Voice: Excuse me.

Ritchie: Yes?

Voice: Do you mind if I watch?

Ritchie: No, I don’t mind at all. Just find a place to make yourself comfortable. We’ll be here for about fifteen more minutes, I think. Okay, now I’m still just assembling things. The next thing you need is a nice rag, a piece of absorbent cotton cloth. This is very handy for cleaning up later on.

The woodcut is all in relief you understand. (Showing the block’s surface features). This is all carved out here. All these little details are standing up in relief. These are holes. Boy, it’s really tricky to move your finger [in the right direction] on a TV camera and . . . it’s like scratching your back in a mirror.

The plate is carved from a piece of birch plywood. (Another voice interrupts.)

Voice: Hi!

Ritchie: Hi.

Voice: Mind if I watch too?

Ritchie: No, that’s fine. The brushes are very important to this process. And we have a very good brush. It’s an American copy, in a way, of ... uh ... of um . . .. (A third interruption).

Voice: How much longer is this going to last?

Ritchie: This tape? Oh, about twelve minutes, or fifteen maybe. The brush is ordinarily a stenciling brush, made by Coast Brush Manufacturing. (Another interruption)

Voice: Is it all right if we ask questions?

Ritchie: Sure. Yeah. It’s a little shorter than a normal stenciling brush but, it’s horsehair. And it is very excellent. That’s about the only special brush that you need for the process.

Now, we are still assembling things. The colors - these are just ordinary watercolors that we use. I happen to be using Winsor-Newton. But you also can use gouache. And these . . . (interruption)

Voice: Did you say what that paste that you’re using? You call it paste?

Ritchie: Well, I haven’t gotten to that yet, it’s uh, rice paste.

Voice: Well can you buy that? Already made?

Ritchie: No, you have to make it yourself. The recipe that I use - I have it in my little book if you want to write it down. It is a fourth of cup and one tablespoon of rice, and one fourth cup, or less, of water. You let that soak, overnight if you have time, then you grind it all up with a mortar and pestle. This releases the starch from the rice. Then you add one half cup water, more, and you strain it into a sauce pan, stirring constantly.

Heat it in a pan and stir it, don’t let it burn! Just keep stirring it and it will thicken. Then you put it in a jar, you know, store it in a refrigerator. That’s the rice paste.

(Repeating:) Color, brush, baren, water - you need another brush to spread the color with or apply the color. I just use a regular watercolor brush - any kind of water color brush will do for that. And, a little container for adding rice paste and a spray bottle and you’re ready to go. Okay.

Voice: Mr. Ritchie? What is that paper you’re using? Is that special paper or can you buy that here in Seattle?

Ritchie: You can print on almost any kind of paper. Some of them require more pressure. This paper that you see that I’m using happens to be a laminate that I prepared ahead of time. But the important thing is that almost any kind of paper will work. It should be fairly soft and lightly sized. It should have a little bit of sizing content to it.

Now, you have to let this block soak a little while. (Coughing in the background). Bless you! Just for the sake of this tape, I think I’ll print a dark color (Interruption)

Voice: What kind of wood is that you’re printing on - is that plywood?

Ritchie: Yeah, it’s birch veneer. Now you apply the color with a watercolor brush. And, I’m going to put on a little bit of paste. The paste can give body to the ink if the paint happens to be too runny. It will give a little more body to the ink. Now this is where the horsehair brush comes in.

Voice: How much pressure do you put on there [when you print]? Is that a lot of pressure? I can’t tell. What happens if you print too light? Is it possible to put on too much pressure?

Ritchie: No, not really. As you see - I’m going to clean this up a little bit - this is just the first proof. No, it doesn’t take a lot of pressure. Well, it depends. You can’t put on too much pressure that I know of except to the extent that you might damage the block. It’s possible to damage some blocks especially if they are made of soft wood.

Birch is a fairly hard wood. Cherry is a lot better - if it’s an important - I mean, if you want line and so forth you usually cut your blocks out of a very hard wood. (He lifts the first piece of paper printed on). There’s the first trial proof. That’s not bad. These first trials are just to, uh - so the amount of pressure - I don’t think you can overdo the pressure. (Interruption).

Voice: Excuse me. Do you have (unintelligible).

Ritchie: Well, no, you don’t have to put rice paste. It’s not required. You see, you have three ingredients in your ink. The watercolor, water, and paste. Now, this is how I add the water. (He sprays with a water spray bottle.) I just spray it on. Just spray on a little water. And there’s a little water in the brush.

And the purpose of the rice paste . . . . (interruption, and Ritchie laughs at his own falsetto voice).

Voice: What’s the purpose of the spray bottle - do you have to do that?

Ritchie: Yeah, you have to use a little water especially on a hot dry day because the block absorbs so much water and your ink tends to get too stiff. (Sounds of printing). A little bit of water on the block makes the watercolor spread better.

Voice: I was wondering what’s the purpose of wiping [the baren] across your head that way. Every now and then you wipe the baren across your head - what’s the purpose of that?

Ritchie: Well, the bamboo, this thing here, the covering, you understand, has to be lubricated somewhat to get the - so it will slide around better. And my hair, like anyone’s hair - is just a little oily. So when I print, it slides around better. (Interruption)

Voice: You’ve got five minutes left.

Ritchie: Yes. It slides around better on the newsprint. If you didn’t do that, your newspaper backing would tend to slough off quite a lot. Oops - I almost forgot to clean the margins.

Working in this short period of time is difficult, but I’ll print on good paper this time. I’m registering it using the "T" registration technique.

Voice: Can you use a wooden spoon?

Ritchie: Yeah, you can print with a wooden spoon. The disadvantage of a wooden spoon is that it applies the pressure in too small of a point.

You see, I’m lubricating my baren on my hair. You can use your nose, too. (He rubs the baren bamboo surface on his nose). If you just washed your hair it’s sometimes a problem because you’ve washed out all the natural oils from your hair.

This piece of paper is very necessary because if you didn’t have that - you see, you can’t rub the baren directly on [the back] of the printing paper.

There, that’s the first application of color. This has already been printed earlier on. The first color is a brown.

Voice: Too bad this tape isn’t in color.

Ritchie: Yeah. Well, this is a burnt sienna, and I’m going to be printing a thalo green over the top of it.

Spray it a little bit. And apply a little color. (Interruption)

Voice: Are you supposed to do anything special after you finished printing? Like, do you have to seal the plate or anything like that?

Ritchie: No. It’s a good idea to wash your plate. You just wash it in water. You know, so it doesn’t sit around full of ink.

Voice: Now that rice paste, how long can you keep that? Won’t it, how do you . . ..

Ritchie: Well, if you keep it in the refrigerator it’ll keep for a few days. We usually . . ..

Voice: Can you use anything else besides rice paste?

Ritchie: Yeah, you can use something they call "Yes" paste. Any vegetable paste - even library paste works. The important thing is that it is some kind of water soluble paste. (Interruption)

Voice: There’s only about 2 minutes of videotape left.

Ritchie: Yeah. There is a little material we buy, it’s called Oil of Cloves, comes in these little bottles, you buy them in drug stores. And you put a drop of that in your rice paste and it will preserve it. This is about fifty-seven cents in a drug store - last you forever. Just a drop or two in your rice paste and it will save it.

The main purpose of this tape, as I said at the beginning, was to show you the right way to set up, the right way to have your tools collected, and keep your working area free and accessible.

Now the burnt sienna has changed quite a bit. Of course you can’t see it in color. But I like to build up the colors very thin and apply just thin amounts of ink at first. It’s a common mistake when you make your first woodcuts is to put way too much water on. It’s very important not to over-water the plate.

Again, you just keep going. You’ll find that after the first few proofs - boy, I’m really that those voices are gone now - you find that after you started pulling your proofs that it goes much easier. And you work up a kind of sequence, a system of working.

I like to print for about an hour and then take a break. Gosh, everything behaves so nicely. But you’ve got to keep the plate kind of damp and, oh, every now and then, you might have to add a little dab of paste. This is a variable.

I started to say earlier the three ingredients are your watercolor, your paste and water. And the amounts of each is depending on what you’re trying to do and what kind of paper you’re using. So there’s no fixed recipe. And sometimes you can use pure watercolor by itself.

Always have the rag handy. You can launder this rag when it gets too dirty; just put it in with your other clothes. (Interruption, as the tape comes to an end.)