Welcome back printmaking nerds. I hope you had a restful three day weekend! A warm welcome to the 37 new members who joined the community last week!

In this week’s issue:

• Accessibility For All

• Recap of Week 2: Carving

• Website Store Update!

• Question Time!

Let’s dive in!

Accessibility For All

Let’s address the elephant in the room - this newsletter looks different. The color palette and font type has changed. This is a direct response to your feedback.

It was brought to my attention that the previous fonts, Helvetica Neue & Arial, were a little cramped and hard to read. Part of what makes this publication unique is that it’s a community. Your input is valuable. Not only does it help me but it helps others in our community of readers.

I decided to go with a softer color palette which would be easier to distinguish against a white background. As to type, I switch to Poppins for the newsletter body, and occasionally Lexend, for certain portions of the online version of the newsletter. I did some research and both of these fonts have a history of being preferred for their accessibility. Plus they are modern and fresh which I quite like.

With these changes, I hope more folks are able to focus on what really interests them and bring them here - relief printmaking. I want to continue making sure this content is useful to you and if you have any further suggestions, do not hesitate in letting me know. 

Recap of Week 2: Carving

Thank you to everyone who joined the second Speedball Instagram Live class this past Saturday! We had 652 folks drop by the class with about 78 staying throughout the session!

You can view the complete replay here! Also, one of the things that has been brought up to my attention is that folks are not seeing when the class begins. In order to help you catch the class from the start, I would recommend that you turn on your post notifications and/or add @speedball_art to your favorites. If on a browser, simply go to www.instagram.com/speedball_art.

You can turn on post notifications by going to the Speedball profile and clicking the bell icon. This will bring a submenu that will allow you to toggle on which notifications you would like to see. Make sure that under Live Videos you press Get All Notifications. While you are on the profile you can click on the Following button which will bring a menu allowing you to Add to Favorites.

Now on to the class summary!

• We talked about the importance of sharpe gouges! The sharper the gouge the easier it will cut the linoleum and less risk there is of slipping.

• In order to sharpen traditional gouges, you will need a whetstone and some practice.

• I personally use several DMT Diamond stones. I have them in coarse, fine and extra fine. You can read more into sharpening on this article I wrote or watch this video and this one.

• I briefly demonstrated how to make two types of tiny little dots. A white dot on a black background can be done by using the tip of a knife and simply twisting the knife. A black dot on white background can be done by gouging a very small circle out.

• I shared why I like making a protective cut around the main shape of my design. This allows you to observe your design before committing to final cuts.

• The protective outline will also naturally stop your gouge from dipping into your main design.

• We also went over how to use built in photo editing software from mobile devices (phone or computer) to see in black in white. For those who have access to a printer, printing a black and white image of the design is of huge help too!

Throughout the week, I will be posting my carving updates for both blocks! I will also be having a live carving session on my profile @danielvillaart on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 6:00 PST.

In the third Instagram Live class, I will be covering printing! I hope to see you on Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 8:00 am PST! Set your alarms!

Website Store Update

The new website is about 80% complete. The domain finally finished transferring and I need to iron out the last details for the online store. If there is one thing my mother taught me well is to never do anything in a rush, when you do things that end up wrong.

Taking her words of wisdom to heart, I want to make sure that the relaunch is smooth and well executed. So with that in mind I am happy to commit to Monday, February 27th, 2023 as the relaunch day!

To celebrate, I will be running an online sale! I will share more of those details in next week’s newsletter! Thanks for your support and patience.

Ask Daniel

Thank you so much for your question! Personally, I love using tracing paper. I like this method because the transparent sheets let me know what I am tracing and I can then simply flip the sheet and press the graphite directly into the block. This trick can be done on both synthetic carving blocks and traditional linoleum. I prefer to transfer after I have tinted the block.

As to the easiest method, that would be the printer method. If you have access to a printer you can simply print your design to a clear acetate sheet, once the sheet has printed press the inked side of the sheet onto your block. This should transfer the design in seconds. It's literally the fastest method I have tried.

I used this method when I carved my new logo stamp. Since the original design was digital it made a lot of sense to use this method. Although I did not use acetate, but a used and empty shipping label sheet. The glossy surface has similar properties to the acetate and it worked just fine for me.

I hope that helped!

Before You Go,

• Want to be part of the ‘Artist Highlight’ or know of someone who might be, fill out this interest form!

• Do you have a printmaking or artist-related question you want me to answer? Reply to this email and let me know here!