Living Prints® Woodcut On-line

Tracing, time and the danger of robbery

Tracing takes time whether a person is tracing his or her own graphic or that of someone else', tracing accurately may consume hours. The one below is part of a reproduction of a reproduction. The details are intricate therefore it takes me an hour to trace a few inches.

From the first tracing, through the closer view (and throughout the tedious labor) I visualized and planned my next steps. As in the Preface, I thought about what inspired the "Woodcut On-line" project in the Living Prints® series as I now work on a very detailed part: a pine branch.

I compare tracing to meditation, a tough discipline, like my language lessons, I think. So, I switch on my Spanish CD/ROM and listen to "La sombra de un fotografo". In this story, the photographer reflects on the Africans in his photos who told him, "It is dangerous to rob men's spirits." Perhaps my tracing (of a 17th century artisan's lines) is robbery. Dangerous? As one may dwell in the past, but--being alive in the present--risk a future; perhaps this is the danger.

Another danger is in corrupting the original image, or misinterpreting the maker's intent. Also, there are copyright laws that, coincidentally (while we are on the subject of printmaking techniques) arose from English printmaking history.

Then comes the rubbing of the tracing, when the paper comes away and the lines are clearer.

• The study of the pine branch in the Chinese print, "Pine, Bamboo and Plum Tree," is for a section in the artist's own work, "My ancestors and me". ©1995 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

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©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. ritchie@seanet.com