My First Woodcut -- My Version of a Durer Engraving as a Woodcut

This was my first woodcut print. To be perfectly accurate, I started this woodcut but then did another smaller woodcut before completing the Durer piece. So, maybe it's my second woodcut. I had done a few linocuts before this so that helped a lot with the woodcut process. For my woodcut plate, I used Shina plywood, which is soft and cuts much like a linocut.
I have done scratchboard illustration for over 40 years, and my scratchboard style looks a lot like an old woodcut. I use thick and thin parallel lines that follow the contour, which is very much the way the old-time woodcuts were made.
I understand that some of you will be critical of me for more or less copying a Durer work, but this was a learning project for me. I thought it would push me to do my best if tried to imitate a Durer piece. I picked Durer because he is thought of as the ultimate engraver and woodcut artist. And I picked one of his engravings because there is no way to duplicate the linework of an engraving with woodcut. So, although I used his composition, I did use my own linework. However, If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have used the drawing from another artist.

I'm reaching the time in my illustration career to where I'm wanting to work on my own projects. Scratchboard and Printmaking is where I seem to be heading.


The voiceover was done with Amazon Polly.


Printing was by Pele Prints
https://www.peleprints.com/


Materials: Shina Plywood, Komasuki knives, and Japanese paper


Illustration and video by Michael Halbert:
http://www.inkart.com/
http://www.behance.net/MichaelHalbert