Woodcut style illustration

Woodcut Effect

Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. 
In our lesson we created woodcut style illustrations using black pen. I experimented with a coconut and a parrot which will be suitable for my Caribbean rum packaging.

After creating my illustration I scanned it into Photoshop. I found a torn paper background that I liked, which made the label look like a pirate's treasure map. I also added a blended layer of town black paper which gave my label some subtle crease marks. I added some distressed typography and used the overlay blending mode to give the words some subtle colour. Over all I am happy with how this turned out but I don't think it will be a technique that I will be using for my final piece.