Not much to see at that scale, so let's move closer ...

... and closer ...

On the first of those images, you can perhaps see the kento (registration marks) over at the right side, and at the bottom right corner. I've also marked lightly the outline that shows the actual size of the finished print. This one is a 'bleed' design, and will be printed on paper slightly larger, then trimmed down after printing.

Although I included the poem area in that image, it will not be carved on the same piece of wood as the keyblock, for a couple of reasons. One is that it will be printed at a different time - the key will come first, but the poem can't be printed until the very last step, after the thick black has been done. But also, I will be carving the poem on a different type of wood. The keyblock will be the usual cherry, but the poem will be on boxwood, allowing much finer detail (and much more pleasure in the carving!)

This is such a treat! Right here on my own desk, I can get this thing printed out by my little Canon laser, and the detail is perfect!

I tell you, one day these modern tools/robots are going to make even my old-fashioned job completely redundant, but until they do, I don't see any reason why not to make use of them!

Here's the printout, with the nice hard piece of cherry just waiting for it to be pasted down.

And it at this point that we leave my upstairs computerized room, and head down into the workshop. Here is where we leave all the modern stuff behind ... the photography, the pen tablet tracing, the Photoshop ... Once this sheet is pasted down onto the block, it'll be just me and my knife!

While the carving is under way, perhaps starting in a couple of days, I'll be thinking about how many colour blocks will be necessary. Here's a portion of the image; how many blocks do you think it will take?

This thread continues in Hokkei Dragon (4) ...