A hand-carved stamp of Baby Pepé from Baby Looney Tunes. This is my first try at him and second try doing a character with light lines on areas of black. The lines came out fairly good. Still messing around with line weights in carving. I muffed up the one paw but it looks somewhat okay otherwise. Carved from Firm Kut. It's grungy from making a bunch of impressions with pigment ink.
The extra files show the progress from the paper transfer to carving.
Based on an original sketch by Bob Guthrie and carved with permission.
It's a bit difficult and very easy to mess up. I've had some practice at it. A neighbor got me started a few years ago. Then I didn't carve a thing for years. Now I've gotten back interest in it and in letterboxing.
One of the toughest things is the tools. Speedball sells linoleum cutting blades and handles but they suck so bad. They're almost unusable as they come out of the box. You have to hone and strop them (I do anyway) to do any kind of detail with them. I also mounted the blades on cut down dip pen handles, which is a common thing and allows a lot more flexibility than the huge handles they sell. Compared to X-Acto blades they're just awful. It'd be great if they had the same level of quality. There are great micro-carving tools out there but they're expensive and I haven't tried them yet. I'm reluctant to order online without trying them first. I may just make or modify some (more) carving tools to meet my needs.
Material is pretty easy. Dollar store erasers are good enough to carve on. This material is a bit harder to get but great to carve. It's much less squishy and holds up better over time. I tested some giant eraser material in a box and it melted into green goo in the summer heat. :-o
It's a bit difficult and very easy to mess up. I've had some practice at it. A neighbor got me st
Oh I believe you on Speedball's lackluster quality, I don't buy anything from them anymore. Dollar store erasers sound like I guess they'll work out I suppose yeah! but what's this, firm kut? nice name lol
Oh I believe you on Speedball's lackluster quality, I don't buy anything from them anymore. Dollar s
A very interesting name. It's very firm. You can still get some Firm Kut from Stampeaz.com. She's mainly selling OZ Kut now, which is similar but even nicer I think.
Supposedly Speedball cutters were actually sharp when they sold them back in the 70s or 80s. Now you really have to sharpen them yourself unless you want tears and jagged cut lines.
A very interesting name. It's very firm. You can still get some Firm Kut from Stampeaz.com. She's
Thanks! I've done some pretty sucky lino cuts in my time and some failed experiments with stamp carving too. Some I should probably post like the two-sided two-color Pinkie Pie cutie mark I did as a test. It's a bit small and imperfect but probably worthy of being posted.
Thanks! I've done some pretty sucky lino cuts in my time and some failed experiments with stamp car
Thanks! It's a TI-2500 calculator still in the box. The thing is mint in package from 1976 with the original rechargeable batteries and everything. I even have the receipt. It was originally sold to a Catskill hotel but they never used it.
Thanks! It's a TI-2500 calculator still in the box. The thing is mint in package from 1976 with th
