Goal: for participants to produce an edition(s) of 5 or more holiday cards from their sketch or drawing.

Instruction: Participants will be introduced to what it takes to make a successful woodcut print holiday greeting card. They will look at wood and paper types, and their advantages and disadvantages for woodcut printmaking. We will also discuss carving tools, inks, brayers, and tools for making the impression on the paper.

NOTE: Safety is a top priority. Participants will use “bench hooks” to stabilize the block while gouging out white areas.

Razor-sharp Japanese carving tools are available for use, and soft, smooth-grained shina plywood is provided to carve the image in. The cost of ink, paper, the first woodblock, and supplies are covered in the fee.

Participants must bring a reference drawing, 6" x 8", or ideas for the holiday woodcut print to be produced.

Participants will transfer their drawing to the block, carve the image into the block, ink the block, and print it, using a hand burnisher.

There will be brief demos of steps of the process each class period, to familiarize participants with tried-and-true details of making handsome woodcut prints.

Student Level

All levels

Supplies Students BrinG       

Sketch or drawing design for student's holiday card

SUPPLIES INSTRUCTOR WILL BRING

Woodblock, carving tools, equipment, paper, ink, rubbing tools         

CLASS CAPACITY

10

Questions

Email or call instructor.

mjpkeyes@yahoo.com or 720.579.8760

About the Instructor

Michael Keyes is a woodcut printmaker and oil painter with a BFA from Wright State University, and an MFA from Ohio State University.

In woodcut printmaking, he is challenged by composing black and white shapes into active, impactful images. His woodcuts relay visual stories—either a simple story of a breathtaking landscape, or a complex story of people helping people, as in activities in early days of the Covid 19 pandemic. The addition of brisk color, produced with oil-based inks, brings a special liveliness to some of his works.

He has taught woodcut printmaking at Park Hill Art Club, when the club met at Park Hill United Methodist Church, before COVID.

He teaches woodcut printmaking at Art Students League of Denver.

He was awarded “Best of Show” at the 2021 National Arts Program Front Range Exhibition, and “First Place” in the Studio Work Category, at the Escalante Canyons Art Festival in 2024, among other recent awards.

* NOTE: Doors open at 9:00am and close at 3:30pm to give the instructor and students time to set up before class begins and to clean up at the end of each class.

PLEASE NOTE (if applicable): Students are required to bring a container for acrylic and/or oil paint waste and will need to take it home to dispose of properly. It CANNOT be poured down the drains at our new location. Students are also encouraged to wipe brushes clean.