Statue in Villa Borghese, 2019
Woodcut print, 12 x 16 inches
While studying abroad in Rome, I took a intaglio printmaking course and experimented with many different forms of printmaking. As one of our final projects, we were asked to create a woodcut of whatever image we wanted, and I chose to create one of a beautiful fountain statue within Villa Borghese.
To create this woodcut print, I first drew out my design on the wood and then carved out the design, test printing to make sure I liked the final print. This block would go on to being my top, darkest grey layer.
We were then asked to create a second block that would require the use of different colors. I decided to use this second block as the various grey tones for shading the face, making it appear slightly more stone-like. Through many different tests and experimentations, I was able to layer each grey tone first by carefully realigning the wood block on the sheet of paper (carving out a new layer of shadow each time so that all the different grey tones didn't entirely overlap).
In order to attain the yellow background, I first carefully had to cover the carved out portion of my original woodblock with wax paper, inking the rest with yellow before printing the layers of the statue. It became quite the feat to cover the yellow once it dried so as to not mess up the block of color with any greys, so I did the opposite for the following rounds of printing by covering the yellow portion of the wood block with wax paper when printing.
