Deathwish Skateboards – Delicacy Series

“So a woodcut is essentially a giant stamp. You carve away everything you don’t want to be printed. Ink is rolled onto the block and paper is pressed against it to create a print. All of my woodcuts begin with a sketch. Once I have everything laid out to my satisfaction I use carbon paper to transfer the drawing to the MDF block that will get carved. I then do a much more detailed ink drawing on the block. The last step before I begin carving is to put an ink wash over the whole block so its easier to see whats getting cut. The longest, but most fun part of the process is carving everything out. All the cuts are made by hand with Japanese carving tools. Once it’s all carved, its time to print. Stiff oil based ink is rolled with a brayer onto the block, paper is placed on top, and the whole thing gets rolled through a press to apply enough pressure to transfer the image. When the image dries I can scan and bring it into photoshop to add color digitally. When I make print editions of my work I usually screen-print the color, but thats a whole other process I wont get into.” – Dylan