Hand Carved Stamp

Here's another lesson in the Wanderlust Art Journal course I'm taking. We are hand carving a Speedball "Speedy-Carve"  block that will be part of a journal spread. The carved block will create a stamp we can print with by using ink. The instructor suggested carving a self portrait to go with the lesson's theme of "you" and showed us how to transfer the image to the block. 

I started this process by taking a selfie and sending it to my printer. Now my photo is on paper. To transfer the paper image to the block, I used white tissue paper (or tracing paper) on top of the photo and traced the lines of the photo with a pencil. I went over the lines until there was a good amount of carbon on those lines and placed that side with the dark lines face down on the block. Lastly, I drew over the lines on the other side of the paper facing me, which transfered the lines to the block. Now I just need to get out my Speedball carving tools and carve away the parts I don't want to print!

This may sound complicated, but when you are actually doing it one step at a time, it's not. The carving part can be a little trickier, especially attempting a portrait. I've carved a bunch of stamps previously, but never a portrait. I will definitely watch the video of the instructor carving her own portrait again, practice on a scrap block, take a deep breath and dive in!