PRINTING "YOUNG PINES"

Printing the "YOUNG PINES" woodcut this week! Edition of 100 prints, coming right up! Still a chance to pre-order on our site & get on board for the first mass mailing. Buy an original print HERE!

"YOUNG PINES" WOODCUT

Drawn & carved from a single woodblock, each tree with distinct charms! New today in our shop, the "YOUNG PINES" woodcut is printed in classic black ink to natural tone Kitakata paper. An edition of 100 prints. Pre-order now available HERE!

FINAL COLOR FOR "OVERLOOK"

Since our first unveiling of the drawing on the key block & the introduction of pre-order in late August of 2014, we have worked steadily on the "OVERLOOK" print, designing, drawing, and carving each of the five 44" x 28" blocks.

After weeks of proofing & refining and remixing & reproofing & re-refining again and again, color proofing is finished! The print has changed a lot and in really great ways! 

We now introduce the "OVERLOOK" Woodcut Print in color! Printed from 5 blocks on 46" x 30" Okawara paper. Limited Edition. On pre-order currently, set to rise after the publication of the edition in January. (See the full print on our site!)

"OVERLOOK" is an expansive landscape lush with vibrant color and vivid patternwork. Intricate in every way, fabulously attentive to detail. The print shows a outdoor landscape that plays with scale as it rises from top to bottom from a dense forest woodland to fields and up into foothills, mountains, and finally a voluptuously clouded sky topped with a glowing blue gradient.

The "OVERLOOK" looks amazing as a single vertical piece but can also be matched up to the edges of itself to create a long, scroll-like vista of infinite size!

Available for purchase on our site HERE.

Or follow the whole making process as it continues to evolve in the printing of the edition HERE.

"OVERLOOK" WOODCUT IN COLOR

The latest color proof of the "OVERLOOK" woodcut. Still in progress, one more round of edits and we should be there! Stay tuned & join up to our mailing list on our website for details!

"LEFT RIGHT" WOODCUT PRINT

"LEFT RIGHT"

12" x 21" B&W Woodcut on Kitakata Paper
Paul Roden + Valerie Lueth, 2015.
EDITION OF 100 PRINTS.

NEW! The "LEFT RIGHT" woodcut in classic B&W. A study of 2 dense woodland patches on 2 woodblocks. Clean-cut treelines showcase the graphic beauty of an idealized forest wonderland. Printed on 12" x 21" natural Kitakata paper. Special rate, limited edition print, now available HERE!

NEW THIS WEEK!

Triangular woodcut sketch! 1/2 of a new woodcut print to debut this week. Stay tuned for a post or join our news at www.tugboatprintshop.com!

"OVERLOOK" UPDATES

Well, the truthful news today...we're still working to get a 1st official color copy of the "OVERLOOK". The print just needs more time! Take a peek at our process behind the process & see what's left to do to finish up this epic color woodcut: T.B.P.S. Newsletter 111!

THE 2ND BLUE BLOCK

Because of the wide range of greens & natural tones we want to color the "OVERLOOK" woodcut, we're making 2 woodblocks for blue (each will print a slightly different ink tone). Here, we're almost done drawing in the detail on the 2nd blue block--when this is done, we'll be carving night-and-day until it's done! 

The "OVERLOOK" woodcut is a 5 block, 46" x 30" color woodcut print-in-progress. This giant & intricate print and all of the blocks that make it are completely handmade using no computer or digital technologies (aside from the photos we take to record the making of it).  It has taken us over 2 years to make the key (in black) and all of the 4 color blocks, so you can imagine the growing excitement as we wrap up the last steps of the making and prepare to enter production on this massive project!

Accomplishing the "OVERLOOK" woodcut will start a new chapter at Tugboat Printshop.

"LOG" WOODCUT PRINT

O, the magic of the forest! The final "LOG" prints are delicate & lovely, with colors harmonious and peaceful, yet blazing and alive! The print has an otherworldly glow, radiating a life pulse in its careful combination of wild patterns & electric pastels. So happy that this image has finally made its way into being!

The cheerfully colored print is a rumination on the cycle of life. The "LOG" supports an intricate and beautiful fern and fungal ikebana, all growing from the decay of the severed tree limb. The fleeting beauty of the smaller growing organisms is fed by the death of the sturdier tree. 

Limited edition prints are HERE!

COLORING "OVERLOOK"

Coloring in the blue block for the "OVERLOOK" woodcut print in progress. Each of our wood blocks is hand-drawn before being hand-carved in low relief for printing. This print is sure to be unlike anything we've ever made before! We have been working on it alongside many of our other projects for the past 2 years.

Hoping to be printing by March!

NEW! "LOG" WOODCUT

Just released for special pre-order!
Here's the "LOG" woodcut!

AUTUMN!

"WOODEN CHAIRS" & "FROND", a nice autumn pairing of woodsy woodcuts on Natural Kitakata paper. 

"OVERLOOK" WOODCUT

A little sneak peek of a big print in the works! The block size is 40" x 28"! Stay tuned to www.tugboatprintshop.com for details about the "OVERLOOK" print's upcoming release, or join our mailing list!

And that's 3/4" birch plywood that we draw & carve on.

BONKERS FOR WOODCUT PROCESS!

We posted this photo on our Flickr over the weekend, and it went bonkers! That is, folks seemed to really enjoy it. And this made us very happy!

Shown are the two hand-drawn, hand-carved blocks for the "TREE SWING" woodcut and, above those, the state proofs.  Two colors printed to make the finished image (top right). Get yours while they last, here! 

"TREE SWING" WOODBLOCK PRINT

The "DESERT ISLAND" color blocks continue to progress (updates really, really soon!), and alongside those big blocks we've been handing back & forth some other stuff (woodblocks) too!

As you may know, Tugboat Printshop is just the two of us, husband and wife, Paul and Valerie, collaborating to make artwork, usually woodcut prints. Every aspect of the making of our prints is done, start to finish, by the two of us working together.  We work on many blocks at a time, handing everything back and forth lots of times. Projects are always happening simultaneously.

In any event, we guess we're trying to let you know that there is a whole lot to anticipate here at Tugboat Printshop this Fall! We've been working like crazy and there is lots of new, lots to come! You should really stay tuned.

For the present, here's a peek at the tiniest of the batch of blocks we have in the works, a wee little image that we will probably be titled "TREE SWING". Coming soon to OUR SHOP!

MAKING "TREE SWING"

Started over the weekend, now carved and ready to head to the press! Stay tuned, it's coming soon to tugboatprintshop.com!

New Woodcut Print, "Love Tree"

"Love Tree"
8.5" x 5.5" Woodcut
Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth, 2007.

Another print in our Woodland Creatures series is finished! This one features a couple of lovebirds perched on the branch of a heart shaped tree. Edition of 100, now available for purchase in our Etsy store!