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Webcast with Jed Henry

Posted by Dave Bull on June 20, 2012 [Permalink]

Our first experiment in 'live' social media took place this morning, with myself and designer Jed Henry doing a little Webcast together. I sat at my bench carving on the Mario design, and he joined me via Skype for a discussion of the project.

We had a few dozen listeners, a number of whom sent in questions/comments while we chatted. We recorded the whole thing - it actually runs nearly two hours! - and it can be seen on Ustream, or simply by playing it here:

It's starts off pretty slowly, but after people began to send us questions, things picked up a bit. There are a few technical issues (audio disappeared when I showed slides), but in general it was a fun and informative conversation!

 

Discussion

 

Added by: Steve on June 21, 2012, 4:51 am

thanks so much for sharing this webcast. it's my first opportunity to watch one (even archived). sorry i couldn't comment in real time.

for those watching the early part of the archived video, it's mentioned later in the discussion, that sometimes there's no sound while showing images, which was a little confusing for a minute.

around 00:51:15 it's so cool that we get to see the view outside from the studio, and when we come back inside, we get a great view of the carving detail (esp. the squid) perpendicular to the camera.

really funny when Jed says: "I'm gonna be honest, David. I was gonna hang it on the wall, but now I feel like a big idiot." around 01:01:10

near 01:10:30 they discuss the price of one of the prints, and i think i hear that the planned price is $125 USD for a single print, and later there is discussion about how the pricing may turn out to be different if you buy an entire series (if that happens at all).

i'm glad you discuss fair use (copyright), Nintendo, and fan art and participation, from around 01:11:45.

thanks for talking about the wood, which David says is yamazakura? (Mountain Cherry), which has been used for woodblock printmaking for hundreds of years, shows the best balance between hardness, durability, and water absorbency.

exciting details, around 01:33:00, where David discusses why he thinks limited editions is a bad idea, how Jed will sign them and add his red (hanko) stamp. the carver and the printer would be embossed in kanji on the border as well. later they say, however, numbering the prints would be valuable.

i'm glad to hear so much support for producing an entire series, which i hadn't really understood until watching this was totally up in the air.

it's so interesting to watch the techniques that David uses to carve, including alternating between cutting lines and clearing -- which i had thought were done separately for the entire print -and focusing on one particular region while leaving other regions completely untouched. also, surprisingly, i didn't see any sharpening of tools happening.

i'm a little disappointed that Jed likes to use FB so much. i'll be hoping to interact with the project in other ways.

overall, an exciting and fascinating venture by two talented and thoughtful people. so glad to see it happening!



 

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