Drawmo 16 (a day late)

Gah. I've had the most frustrating day, trying to print an edition of a wood engraving using the letterpress press. I solved the problem of the ink being grey (by adding pigment-rich woodblock ink to the letterpress ink) and I solved the packing pressure problem; now I've got to perfect the height of the rollers so that they ink strongly but don't leave a white pressure line on the far end of the block. If anyone out there has any tips for printing type-high woodblocks on a flatbed cylinder press, I'd be very happy to hear them. For the most part the prints are looking great, but to a trained eye like the expert printmaker who wandered in at lunchtime, the line is a problem.

Sigh. So I haven't managed any drawings, other than the ones in my head. So here's yesterday's, from the vault as usual (feeling very slack):



I drew this portrait of Australian poet Bruce Dawe whilst he was reading his work aloud at a Canberra poetry festival in either 2002 or 2003. Doesn't he have the best nose to draw? His poetry is good, too.

It's drawn right at the edge of a sketchbook page, hence the line on the left.

I'm still at the Book Stud, and there's nothing else in this particular sketchbook worth sharing, so I'll see what I can find when I get home for today's Drawmo. You never know, I might even skritch something up between riding home and going out to a friend's daughter's 21st (something that makes us all feel very old, like tribal elders. My friend was 16 when her daughter was born! Gawd, we could all be great-Aunties soon... if she was that was inclined, which she isn't.)