Saturday, June 5, 2010

Inspiration: 16 Century Playing cards




From the woodblock printing Video on the Victoria and Albert website
Here the block is being carved

A stencil is used to apply colour to the image. Cool man.

I find these playing cards from the Victoria and Albert museum very inspirational. They date from 1520 and would have been created using a woodblock and then coloured with a stencil. I think the drawing of the 'knaves' are adorable and I love how the colour is slightly off register. The V + A website has a very instructive video which demonstrates the technique of woodblock printing.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This was delightful, Alanna. I enjoyed the little video, and it's strange to think this was originally conceived as a method of SPEEDING UP printing and colouring, and that cards were among the earliest mass-produced printed objects.

Melody

Ben J Hamilton said...

The original suits were quite different too – depending on the country. In one region it was Swords, Cups, Coins and Clubs. Italy I think.