Step Six ...

Red 'obi' ... Now this thing starts to wake up! This is the first of three vivid colours that are going onto this print - vivid and bold to match the sweep of those beautiful black lines ...

This impression wasn't an easy one - I faced the same problem as I did with the keyblock; lots of pigment on the block to get the strong colour, but how to avoid filling in the small spaces?

The answer is in the sharkskin! Before starting any impression like this, you have to work the brush on a piece of sharkskin for a while. This tears the tips of the brush hairs, leaving them soft and gentle and thus able to brush pigment out of these holes, but does not affect the overall stiffness of the hair, an important factor in being able to spread the pigment smoothly.

Registration was very tight too, and all the tiny 'star' shapes had to be filled with red. This is where that nail polish really saves the day ...