Artist Insights: Duncan Montgomery – Jackson’s Artwork BlogJackson’s Artwork Weblog

Duncan Montgomery is a London-based wooden engraver. On this Artist Insights movie, he shares what drew him to the self-discipline of wooden engraving, how poetry conjures up his work, and a few of the strategies he has realized by hours of trial and error alongside the best way.

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Artist Insights: Duncan Montgomery

 

 

Contents

0:00 Introduction

0:36 “My curiosity in literature got here earlier than my curiosity in artwork”

1:07 “I taught myself by trial and error”

2:01 “You don’t want plenty of gear for wooden engraving”

2:26 “Wooden engraving is flexible”

3:07 “Among the initiatives I do are fairly long-term”

4:27 “When it comes to planning, I do plenty of drawing”

5:14 “Sketchbooks, reference pictures and historic materials are a part of my apply”

5:38 “I like the concept that pictures have an afterlife”

6:09 “Wooden engraving was a mass-production artwork”

6:42 “Books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are imperfect objects”

7:30 “It will probably take me a while to get into the zone”

7:57 “It’s irritating to re-engrave a block that has already been printed”

9:39 “Printing by hand provides a pleasant handmade high quality”

10:20 “Studying and writing poetry has been an enormous affect”

12:02 “Modernist poets provide some resistance to the reader”

12:38 “I need to incorporate textual content and picture extra in my work”

14:00 “Errors do occur”

14:21 “Utilizing completely different woods is a part of the number of the medium”

15:13 “I’m interested in the element you’ll be able to obtain with wooden engraving”

15:55 “Ideally, you wouldn’t have a most popular instrument”

16:51 ”All the time use a instrument that’s barely greater than you assume you want”

17:11 “When it comes to inks, it’s received to be oil-based”

17:57 “Understanding when to cease is a matter of expertise”

18:27 “All of the wooden engravers I’ve met have been actually beneficiant”

19:09 “There’s one thing about wooden engraving that runs to insanity”

19:57 Credit

 

 

Extract

I began English literature earlier than I began wooden engraving, so the curiosity in literature in all probability got here barely earlier than my curiosity in artwork. Trendy print tradition was what I studied principally at a college, and I used to be notably taken with how books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been produced, notably the illustrated books. I spent plenty of time in uncommon books rooms, pulling up printed books and manuscripts.
The very first thing I did was have a look at what I wanted to begin. I purchased a ebook by Simon Brett, which is Wooden Engraving: How you can Do It and it actually received me going.

So I taught myself by trial and error, which I feel on some stage might be the one method you are able to do it. I’ve since attended programs to work on particular features of my printing abilities. However finally, there’s no education that may be a alternative for simply doing it, making errors, and never making it once more.

While you’re drawing one thing for the fifth or sixth time, lastly transferring it to the block, and engraving it very exactly over 5 or 6 days, you have interaction with the subject material on fairly a deep stage. I all the time discover that actually rewarding.

I work out of my residence as a result of wooden engraving is comparatively easy. You don’t want plenty of gear. So I simply have my pictures or drawings round me and the block in entrance of me on a sandbag. I sit at a desk, which can also be a standing desk for consolation, as a result of the periods will be fairly lengthy. I will be working for eight or ten hours fairly simply.

Many of the engravings I’ve labored on are comparatively small. I’m fairly into the element and types of artwork like illustration or ebook plate work, the place you don’t essentially go for the most important poster-level format. Wooden engravings are small and refined. And since you spend numerous time refining the picture and making it as crisp and daring as you’ll be able to, they have a tendency to work fairly properly for branding functions—like on the covers of merchandise and stuff like that. I’ve labored on wedding ceremony invitations, CD covers, and album covers, that type of factor. There’s actually quite a bit you are able to do. So it’s fairly versatile from that perspective.

 

 

Among the initiatives that I do are fairly long-term. At the moment, I’m engaged on a challenge in regards to the historical past of cold-water swimming in England with a cultural historian. We’ve been working collectively for 2 years or so, making prints on that theme, drawing on a lot of completely different archival materials, and mixing that with pictures and drawings from our journeys swimming. We’ve used all types of visible prompts for that—all the things from strongarming my mates into modelling to Victorian pictures or maps.

One factor I take pleasure in about this challenge is that it’s figurative and contains folks. I feel wooden engraving is nice for figurative work, and I’ve tried to include as a lot of that as I can.

For instance, I’m engaged on a ebook plate in the meanwhile that has completely different motifs drawn from Morris wallpapers and the copper plate map of London. I’ve drawn motifs from these sources and labored them right into a single ebook plate for an establishment.

When it comes to planning pictures, I do numerous drawing. You’re usually working inside a small space the place you’ve received a block of a sure dimension and must make all the things match. It usually takes 4 or 5 variations of a design to work out. As soon as I’ve settled on a composition that I like and have a toned drawing to remind me of the relative tone within the picture, I hint that. I usually reduce out the tracing to have a traced define of the most important objects or areas of the picture, then draw round that.

Sketchbooks are a part of my apply as are reference pictures and historic materials that could be referenced within the picture. I don’t have a single sketchbook that I fill with all my drawings. I are inclined to hold concepts in my head. Then as soon as I’ve a transparent concept for a selected picture, I work it up in isolation on watercolour paper.

 

 

While you’re working from pictures, notably Victorian and Nineteenth-century ones, there’s an odd thought that somebody stood in the identical place for 30 seconds within the Nineteenth century, and that act has some type of echo in artwork in the present day. I discover that fairly satisfying. I identical to the concept that these pictures have an afterlife. It’s fairly a wealthy visible useful resource to attract on.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are actually earlier than wooden engraving was practiced. Most illustrated books in that period had both plate engravings or sort ornaments. It’s not till the late 18th century that individuals began to do wooden engravings versus woodcuts or different printmaking types for illustrated books. It was actually a mass manufacturing method at that stage—you possibly can print 1000’s of instances from an engraved woodblock.

The factor that received me fairly enthusiastic about making prints and letterpress printing, although I’m removed from a letterpress printer, was the truth that the books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been usually printed on coarse paper. The artwork was not of a very excessive commonplace, and the presses have been way more tough to make use of effectively than a contemporary press, or perhaps a Victorian one.

So that they’re imperfect objects in some ways. They’re not effective printing because it’s practiced in the present day, however they’re nonetheless actually evocative of their period and have a magnificence that transcends that sometimes scrappy high quality.

It will probably take me fairly some time to get into the zone earlier than I engrave. As soon as I’m within the zone, time can cross with out me noticing. Notably if I’ve the radio on, I can engrave for 12 hours fairly simply.

You must be in the appropriate way of thinking to keep in mind that what you’re creating shouldn’t be the completed object—it’s a stamp from which the completed object will likely be made. And that’s actually essential to doing good engraving.

 

 

While you’ve received to the top of the engraving course of, you’ll type of really feel like there are diminishing returns when it comes to the modifications you’re making as a result of all the most important bits of engraving are already carried out. At that time, I’d are inclined to do a proof simply to see the place it’s. After that time, you’ll be able to engrave the block extra, however it may be barely irritating. Initially, while you’re chopping it, you’ve blackened the floor of the block with Indian ink or one thing. You’re chopping it away and seeing the wooden color, so that you successfully see what the print’s going to seem like.

As soon as printed, you’ll usually use a solvent that dilutes the ink or a rag to get it off the floor of the block. That can push the ink into the recessed incisions the place you’ve reduce the floor of the block away, staining the wooden color in these incisions. So you’ll be able to not see the design staring again at you—it’s extra like a black-stained piece of wooden.

Typically, you’d use one thing like talc powder, put it on the floor of the block, and easy it into the incisions so you’ll be able to see the place you’re going once more. But it surely’s tough to exactly manoeuvre a wooden engraving instrument again right into a reduce while you’re smearing talc powder and stuff round it. So I make sure that the preliminary print is as shut as attainable to the completed product as a result of it’s fiddly to do plenty of work on the block when you’ve printed from it.

Once I’m printing, I roll the ink out and get it onto the floor of the block utilizing a rubber curler. I’ve a press, however I don’t have the press in London, so I are inclined to print by hand a bit extra. I feel it does give a very nice handmade high quality, in the event you like. It’s not essentially fairly as exact as printing in a press, however you will get actually good outcomes. And notably, I discover in the event you use a type of skinny Japanese paper like Tsunami Senaka or Kitakata, one thing like that, you’ll get a very first rate print.

I’ve printed poetry in varied locations through the years. My output did drop quite a bit whereas I used to be doing extra engraving. However I’m hoping over the subsequent couple of years that I can rectify that, notably as I’m spending extra time on artwork usually. And I can mix them each and type of up my output and hopefully publish extra extensively.

Studying and writing poetry, I feel, has been fairly an enormous affect on me and my wooden engraving. I’ve all the time been a fan of wooden engravers who’re additionally poets and had that type of connection between the 2 types.

The expertise of writing and the expertise of doing wooden engraving—they do have some similarities. While you’re engaged on a chunk of formal writing, so it has like a meter or verse type or a selected line, or while you’re engaged on an engraving, while you’re at one take away from the ultimate product and also you’re engaged on a block of wooden moderately than the print that comes off it, there’s all the time a component of shock the place the shape, within the case of poetry, or the method, within the case of printmaking, collaborates with you.

 

 

You’ll have a component of shock and a scarcity of management virtually, even in the event you attempt to be very exact in turning out the completed product. I all the time discover that rewarding—to see one thing click on into place in a verse or to see a print come off the block flipped and looking out fairly completely different to the way you thought it will. So it’s a very nice feeling.

The folks I learn most are usually modernist poets, folks like Marianne Moore and Christopher Middleton. Generally they’re fairly irritating to the reader as they’re providing a little bit of resistance. It’s not all the time the best studying expertise, however they’re taken with creating types that hold their secrets and techniques a bit bit. They don’t clarify all the things.

Textual content and picture is one thing I’ve carried out a bit and I need to do extra in my work. The truth that you embrace poetry in a chunk of artwork, it type of has a life that’s barely exterior the world of poetry and notably journals which can be extra specialist.

You’re placing it on the wall and It’s an instantaneous factor that may be accessed by different folks. But it surely’s nonetheless poetry. I do assume that offers poetry one other method of connecting with folks.

I’ve this engraving of deer on the block and alongside the highest I’m going to have the primary strains from a poem that I’ve written in regards to the picture. After which across the backside I’ll have the remainder of the poem. It is going to be:

“Little question howls on the gate of the Duke who opens Parliament’s Park, whose paling prongs are excessive and sharp, whose thistles are official.”

After which across the backside:

“Little oval beds, they offer his grace, his grace, and sure, we minded our conscription much less when a median man would name upon our magnificence.”

Or there could be a bit little bit of modifications to that textual content. However that’s mainly what I’ve deliberate for this one.

Errors can occur while you’re doing wooden engraving. So there’s no method again. When you’ve made a reduce on the floor of the block, you’re simply going to should work with it. And I have a tendency to not begin once more as a result of, usually, there’s a lot time invested in a wooden block. For those who’re going to begin once more after 20 hours, it’s simply dispiriting actually.

 

 

When it comes to the woods, the type of luxurious gold commonplace could be boxwood. Lemonwood I discover is analogous—related hardwood. It’s a pleasant floor to work on, equally dense, and it cuts actually properly. So I have a tendency to make use of lemonwood for many initiatives after which pull out the boxwood for the status ones or those I’m actually frightened about, simply because it’s barely simpler to be exact on and it’s simply extra pleasurable to engrave. There are different woods that you should use as properly, like holly or pear. I feel pear is used quite a bit in america.

A part of the number of the medium is utilizing completely different woods and even artificial plastic surfaces for various initiatives. Why did I select wooden engraving moderately than woodcut? The distinction between these two strategies is woodcuts are carried out on a plank of wooden. A plank is reduce the identical method that the tree is rising, whereas wooden engraving is finish grain—perpendicular to the route that the tree is rising in. So you’ll get sometimes a round cross-section, which might be the start line for it.

And while you engrave on finish grain moderately than facet grain planks, you will get much more element into it. So I used to be all the time drawn to the element you possibly can obtain and likewise the type of intimacy along with your topic.

When it comes to the instruments, I feel ideally you wouldn’t have a most popular instrument. There’s a saying that somebody recorded: ideally, you’ll by no means have a instrument in your hand lengthy sufficient that it takes the heat of your hand since you need to be making the reduce, deciding on one other one, and actually simply utilizing the appropriate instrument for the appropriate job.

You actually ought to sharpen your instruments on a regular basis. For those who’re doing wooden engraving, it’s simply in order that they reduce the wooden so a lot better. For those who return to them each couple of hours no less than—or extra usually truly—and simply give them a sharpen on a sharpening stone. I say that absolutely within the information that I’ll go days with out doing it myself, however as soon as I’ve carried out it, I all the time discover the distinction. So yeah, hold the instrument sharp.

 

 

All the time use the instrument that’s barely greater than the one you assume you want as a result of ink is kind of highly effective. While you print from a wooden block, usually I have a tendency to seek out it barely overpowers the white cuts that you simply’ve made. So all the time reaching for a much bigger instrument than the one that you simply assume you want is an effective corrective to that.

When it comes to the inks, it’s received to be oil-based as a result of in the event you use water-based inks to print from wooden blocks, they open up the grain on the floor of the wooden, and it’s simply not a good suggestion. So hold it to oil-based inks. I have a tendency to make use of Cranfield ones. My favorite ones are a bit stiffer, so a bit extra cheesy.
It tends to be letterpress ink. I like the marginally hotter tone—like Seville black, the place there’s a barely orange tone to it. Or conversely, I fairly like a graphite type of black, which is a little more gray than commonplace carbon black letterpress ink.

When to cease is clearly a little bit of expertise labored into that. I have a tendency to seek out out—I end engraving a bit bit too early, or I’ll be not sufficiently daring within the engraving, and issues end up a bit darker than I’d hoped and anticipated them to. So usually, if I err, I err on that facet, sadly.

However with expertise, I’m getting barely higher at it. When it comes to the wooden engraving group, I’m a comparatively new entrant. In reality, I wouldn’t even essentially say I do know that many wooden engravers. However all those I’ve met have been actually beneficiant, welcoming, and keen to share their secrets and techniques. There’s a Society of Wooden Engravers within the UK, they usually are inclined to have exhibitions and occasions and so forth. You may be a part of in the event you’re something from an fanatic to a practising full-time artist. Lots of their members run programs as properly.

 

 

I feel there are extra completely different blacks on the market than folks have a tendency to grasp. I’ve carried out prints, as an illustration, the place partly by organically by the method, which is a elaborate method of claiming by varied errors, I’ve wanted to do two blocks moderately than one. And one advantage you’ll be able to pull out of that necessity is utilizing completely different blacks. So, utilizing a type of fainter impression or fainter black in a single space of the print and a very daring, heat black in one other space can provide an attention-grabbing depth to what’s successfully a black-and-white print.

I feel one of many issues I actually search for in a printmaking paper, clearly for effective work, is for it to be actually easy. It’s fairly a advantage in the event you’re printing by hand when it’s actually skinny. Partly simply because it compresses onto the floor of the block extra simply. But additionally, you’ll be able to usually see by the again of it while you’re burnishing the again of the paper, and you may see the place you’ve made ok contact to get a transparent print.

And Japanese papers are actually good for that. So, like Kozo, for instance, or Kitakata or Tsunami Senaka—they’re fairly skinny. And a few of them, whereas they’re fairly easy, they’ve a very nice texture to them. I notably assume my secret weapon in the meanwhile is Kitakata inexperienced, which is a really barely green-tinged paper that offers a very uncommon tone, fairly completely different from utilizing simply regular white or acid-free white paper. So, yeah, there are many belongings you’re juggling when in search of printmaking paper.

When transferring the picture onto a block, I are inclined to do it comparatively vaguely or roughly. So, I’ll draw round bits of a tracing, or I’ll simply put a tracing on prime and put the pencil on the highest of somebody’s head or one thing, transfer it out, after which make a bit dot there.

So it’s probably not very exact. Once I’m doing issues which can be extra exact, I have a tendency to make use of carbon paper. You simply put it beneath the tracing of your drawing and hint by it once more simply on the outlines in order that the carbon paper transfers the drawing extra exactly. However I have a tendency not to do this as a result of usually simply utilizing a ruler and doing just a few straight strains or roughly delineating an object is sufficient for me.

 

About Duncan Montgomery

Duncan Montgomery is a wooden engraver from the North-East of England, now based mostly in London, whose work has been proven on the RA Summer season Exhibition, Woolwich Up to date Print Honest, and the Society of Wooden Engravers’ Annual Exhibition. He turned taken with wooden engraving whereas finding out early trendy print tradition and subsequently taught himself to engrave.

​At the moment he’s engaged on a collection of prints of Parson’s Pleasure, a male bathing spot in Oxford. He enjoys working collaboratively and is all the time taken with discussing new commissions or shared initiatives. He additionally acquired the Quiller-Sofa Award for his poetry, which has been printed in PN Evaluate, Carcanet New Poetries VI, the Sunday Instances and Prototype 6.

Comply with Duncan on Instagram

Go to Duncan’s web site

 

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