Japanese Art

I recently completed a 5 week course at the local art museum in Japanese woodblock printing and calligraphy. I love all kinds of Asian art, and I was looking forward to this class for months. We did a wood block carving and print, made a name stamp and did some calligraphy. 

The first day of class, we had a Japanese model come in and we all did sketches of her in different poses with props.  This pose with the fan was my favorite and the one I used to make my woodblock. I cropped it to just the corner of the fabric and her arm and hand holding the fan. 

The final print on good Japanese rice paper. I'm happy with the print, though I do feel there is a bit of empty space on the right hand side, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Possibly do some light sumi-e painting in the background, cherry blossoms or something. 

There is also the red name stamp.  We got to carve our own with the same wood we used for the print, but obviously on a much smaller scale.  I used a cherry blossom because it was more fun than just my initials. 

My name stamp. Traditionally, they are carved into soapstone, but since we were doing our own, we used wood. I have a little cheap soap stone stamp that came with a Chinese calligraphy set I bought years ago. I'd love to get it carved!

The wooden stamp we carved, next to my little soap stone stamp and a chapstick for size comparison.

On the last day, last week, brush calligraphy!! We practiced these for a while and then did them on highest quality museum quality board, complete with name seal. I love these and I really want to frame and hang them up.

                   "Joy"

"Zen Meditation"

               "Spring"