Cainhowlett - Tumblr Blog

loving the new work, snake block looks soo good 🐍

Thank you! The snake block has been so fun to carve!

Nearly finished with carving the snake section of the block, with some clean up to go.

Finally began carving the snake block, starting with the crux of it all, the head.

I found a block recently that I carved some years ago in Turkey, but never printed. I did a pencil rubbing to see what I was going to edit in the block and somehow I never returned to print the edition.

Wip, ink layout before carving

Tan oak woodblock print of a local dorid, I love the wood grain

Completed the nudibranch. Leaving the background intact to get the texture of this locally milled tan oak woodblock, such a nice challenge to carve and reminds me of home.

Closer. Wip, the layout honestly takes me the longest and I'm messy, working at it until it's close to what I see in my head, the carving is like gliding down hill at this point.

Loosely based on a preschool’s classroom tortoise, with a dog faced butterfly and appropriately printed on yellow construction paper.

Working on a new mini print, homage to a preschool’s class tortoise. My first attempt at carving rubber, which is honestly more difficult than linoleum or woodblock

Working on the pencil layout for the next block.

The snake that makes me think of our watershed, Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis

Do you sell your work/prints anywhere?

People are free to dm me if they are interested in purchasing art! Thank you :)

Homage to home and the unnamed beautiful old growth. Based on a real tree

Intertidal love, version 1. Limpets

Carving a masterpiece, the Limpet Embrace, a story of intertidal love. Let me love you with my foot.

One of our neighbors wanted me to try some locally milled tan oak, my review is that the wood is nice to carve, but the grain has enough separations that I wouldn’t attempt doing detailed work. Carve for the wood you use and this is perfect for limpets.

Hey! I love your work, what kind of gouges do you use?

Thank you! For detailed work I’m using a long handled Kogatana from Michihamono, I use two sizes of U-gouges from them as well, and for background clearance, two sizes of Aisuki from Woodlike Matsumura. I like the long handled tools for handling and as you sharpen your tools, you can chip away the wood handle to reveal more metal, so they last a really long time.

The final scanned image to a project that spanned more than a year in the making. The end feels happy and sad, but also freeing to return to a backlog of other ideas.

The seal with the spots is based on one I swim with up here, a nod.

Wip.

Someone asked me the other day if I transfer images to the blocks I want to carve and the answer is no. Every print is essentially 3 separate art pieces, all sketched and done directly on the block. The pencil layout, which establishes the composition, the ink layout which sets up the loose guidelines I follow, and then finally, the carving itself, which is a completely different part of my brain to the last two stages.

Wip carving the last seal print. I always start with the crux of block first, which in this case is the head/whiskers

The final scanned image

Desk editions

I love your art so much! Thank you for sharing it here!

Thank you! :)