May - Week 3

Written 03/06/2025

Sooooo.... before I discuss my art I do want to say that I REALLY fell behind this month. I got really overwhelmed and really wasn't sure how I was meant to go on with the medium (I think that is something to more firmly consider in Week 2). I also really fell into 'perfect being the enemy of good' and I really felt like whatever I could do wouldn't be good enough and that I would let everyone down (yeah, I fell down in a bit of a spiral). Luckily my anxiety of 'deadlines' overrode my executive dysfunction and I powered through over the weekend and so I have finished everything now (in early June). This means this 'week' will be all retrospective rather than me discussing my ONGOING progress.

Sketching ideas

So, in part due to my desire to finish this, I kind of worked backwards here in that I STARTED with my 'final idea' and then practised the different aspects in more detial. I used a photo I had taken a month ago as my background and then used a photo of a woman I had taken (I had taken the photo of the park she was simply in the background) to reference the person. (I won't be showing that photo for privacy reasons)

A small park on a sunny day, surround by black gates, there is a large cherry blossom tree with pink petals, the grass is adorned with these pink petals too
A lined sketch of a simplified version of the park, with a woman holding a phone (not in the photo)

I made the drawing narrower than the actual photo to better emulate the Beauty Viewing Cherry Blossoms At Night's look.

Once I had done that, I practised drawing the blossom, flowerbed and grass

A sketch of small clumps of blossom, some being just a few petals
Started with very basic shapes
A sketch of more detailed blossom (three on a branch) along with blades of grass. Notes are 'flowers have odd shapes' and 'would be useful to print!'
Decided to add more detail
A sketch of a flower bed with petals lining it and bit of grass sticking up in the middle
Tried to ensure I had some perspective...

Once I had done the 'environmental' drawings I decided to take a stab at the woman's face to make it look more in the style of Katsushika Ōi. So firstly I copied the face from Beauty Viewing Cherry Blossoms At Night and then tried my best to emulate the style on a different woman.

A pencil drawing based on the face of the woman from Beauty Viewing Cherry Blossoms At Night
Not a bad emulation if I say so myself...
A pencil drawing and a fineliner drawing of an Indian woman in profile in the (attempted) style of Katsushika Oi
I added the lids to show she isn't Japanese (she's meant to be South Asian... I hope that comes across!)

After finishing the drawing practise... I decided to actually try to incorporate the actual medium that Katsushika Ōi did her work in... woodblock printing!

To say I was unprepared would be an understatement and a half, for one thing I didn't even really know about the ukiyo-e technique until two weeks into the month and then I needed to get the woodblocks and the carving tools and the ink and ARGHHH!!! I needed to watch a tutorial! (These were harder to find than I would have expected!!!!!!!!!!) And even when I actually got the materials my brain just wouldn't let me do it! I FINALLY did do some carvings though...

So I drew the patterns into the wood with pencil and then carved AROUND the drawing (and got wood filings everywhere lmao) and I then painted over the patterns with special woodblock ink and I placed the paper on the block (I didn't have a brayer so I rubbed with my fingers) which I imagine would work a lot better if the block and paper were a similar size rather than the paper being much bigger so I did it in really awkwards angles lmao

Japanese woodblock carving tools
The carving knifes I used
A woodblock with a carved heart, grass, a gate and blossom in different parts. These are all painted black (seeming almost stained)
Not super graceful, I did kind of get into the groove after a while to be fair

And here are the prints themselves!

Japanese woodblock carving tools
This was my first attempt at printing... a bit blobby on one side and barely there on the other
A woodblock with a carved heart, grass, a gate and blossom in different parts. These are all painted black (seeming almost stained)
Much improved!
Japanese woodblock carving tools
I then tried a heart, I missed a bit in the middle but feels more concrete!
A woodblock with a carved heart, grass, a gate and blossom in different parts. These are all painted black (seeming almost stained)
This is the gate (which is sort of silhouetted already), definitely a balance of not wanting too much ink

Last but not least, with all that out of the way I did my 'rough draft' version (this draft is very rough!)

Goauche painting of a woman in a park in the night with her phone as the only light source. The blossoms are bright pink.
The gate (barely visible) and the blossom are woodblock printed, the rest freehand

How the process went

Oooh boy, the process was rough for this one. Aside from what I've already said the woodblock stuff was really hard and just doing the shapes was hard enough. There was no way I could do a whole scene in the time I had, and it was a struggle to make the lines thin. I imagine if I had more time, experience and better quality materials this could have worked out better but at least I tried right?

That being said, I did manage to prepare myself well for my final piece in the end

Anything I have learnt

PLAN BETTER!!! This somewhat contradicts April Week 3 but then I was very aware of the medium that I would be using for the final piece whereas here I hadn't researched enough in that regard. So basically, look up HOW the artist did the work and consider any compromises I will make so it's feasible for me to do (which I actually did in January thinking about it)