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First Contact. So after thinking about doing something with wood and knifes or gouges I looked up what type of wood would be cheap to try out. A couple of years ago I had already seen videos of David Bull on Youtube and was fascinated, so wood was my first instinct instead of linoleum.

We bought some multiplex light plywood 12mm and I just started drawing as I did on paper. After I had finished a drawing with my pencil I would go over it with a pigma micron pen and then would just start going at it with Pfeil gouges and some micro flexcut. Which both work really well so far, though I find myself leaning more and more to exploring finer details. I think that I will look into some Power Grip set as an addition soon as well. And an extra thing to note for the images of the block below I also had used a dremel for the round parts of the flower, this was a lot of fun!

So a few ‘mistakes’ at the beginning of my journey are that directly drawing on the wood is not taking into consideration that the image will be mirrored after i press it. I will try out printing on the smooth part under label paper. Apparantly this will keep the ink wet enough and I can press it onto wood mirrored this way. It also means that I will either draw on paper and scan it into photoshop or just draw with a drawing tablet. So the work will become a lot more digital, and I am still unsure how to feel about this. but this step is needed to get the right composition. Overall it really feels like an adventure and I am excited to see where it will take me.

Finding a style that fits. I started out in coloring books and at some point i came across a page that had a lot of white space. I felt it was not complete and started adding reference images that felt beautiful to me. After this I started sketching a lot, in the past I had read Betty Edwards ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ and it turned out I was still somewhat able to draw from reference. Lots of reference images later of colourful faces which turned into faces with flowers. After this the faces became fish and sea related objects, together with flowers which resonated a lot with me.

Although my subject of choice became more and more visible the medium of colored pencil and paper was not quite the right click for me. And then I stumbled into a place with lots of firewood and a wood workshop, it all just started falling into place. What if instead of paper i switched to wood and make my drawings 3d or maybe flat but raised and endless in print?

From seeing a lot of wood to the thought of putting a small whittling knife into a block — that’s how it started. I fell for the feeling of carving, for gouges and flat surfaces that could print many more flat surfaces. It was the click I had been searching for.

I’ve tried many old crafts over the years — spinning, weaving, even a short-lived fascination with stone carving (a bit too ambitious for the living room). I also considered stained glass, but somehow I ended up with blocks of wood and linoleum instead.

Sometimes it just takes time to find the one thing that holds you — hugs you just right. A bit like dating used to be. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just needs to make you think, “Yes, this will do.”

If you’ve ever felt something similar in your life, I’d love to hear about it.