On Sunday, we headed to Baltimore. But first we had to pack the car. Suitcase? Check. Diaper bag? Check. Surly two-year-old? Check.

We made it approximately 15 miles when hunger was declared. And so we stopped to do something about it. At which point, I noted that I had failed to dress Kato.

August continued his usual practice of grazing exclusively on frosting.

We got back in the car and we drove. We drove to Elkridge, south of Baltimore, where we left he kids with friends for the day, and continued on to Baltimore. Our destination was the Maryland Institute College of Art, where we had been asked to lead a two-day workshop for the first-year illustration graduate students.

On the walk from our car to our destination, I passed this patch of sidewalk. Had it been anywhere else, I would have assumed that some bricks had been damaged and that when the time came to replace them, there were no red ones to be found. But since we were on the campus of an art school, I figured something creative was afoot.

There are 15 first-year students in the illustration grad program. And they are from all over the world. Chicago, China, Mexico, Maryland, Kansas, Korea, etc. We started off by giving a talk about creativity, running a small business, and risk taking.

Then we launched into exercises, the first of which was a collaborative book-making project.

And then we shared some of the hand-bound books we’ve picked up over the years, showing the students various printing and binding techniques.

Then we did a number of exercises meant to demonstrate principles of collaboration. First, illustrating a very simple phrase, “The cat sat on the mat,” the point being to use the image to add something to an otherwise flat narrative. Afterwards, they had to work together to develop single panel cartoons demonstrating the power of nonredundant image/word pairings.

This wonderful rabbit planet, for example:

We concluded by teaching them how to make their own mix-and-match books using a template we’ve developed to show people how relatively simple it is to pull off. (Incidentally, we’ll be doing this same exercise with third graders next Monday at an elementary school in Pennsylvania.)

The students did an amazing job. Check out this guy’s drawing

And now check it out with the bottom panel flipped.

And a few more panels flipped.

The students seemed to enjoy the challenge.

Here is someone else’s book. It was fun to see the range of styles.

  

I love this one.

And check out this series of combinations. 

    

Great from the standpoint of showing students a new way to think about illustration. Terrible from the standpoint of totally exposing the simple mechanics behind our special trick.

If Robbi was disturbed by this, she did not show it.

After the workshop ended, we drove to Hampden to visit with our friends Eric and Ann. Eric is the illustrator and printmaker behind Eric Leland’s Manufactory, which I urge you to check out if you enjoy whimsical, beautiful, hand-made things. Eric prints most of his stuff on letterpress, which, as you know, is a new fascination of ours. And so we visited with his presses.

I apologize to him in advance for mangling the terminology, but he has one press that functions like a Vandercook, making impressions by pressing a piece of paper between a plate lined with type and a cylinder moving horizontally.

He has another press that functions like our Chandler & Price, meaning the pull of a lever brings the plate and the paper together under pressure to make the impression.

Eric knows a lot about printing, and so we listened as he showed us the basics.

In addition to presses, Eric has lots of type. Metal type…

And wood type.

Isn’t it beautiful?

For the most part, we’re going to avoid type with our letterpress printing, opting instead to order sheets of high-density polymer that acts like a tray of set type. We lack the time and expertise to set our own type. We also lack the type.

But I sure do like looking at the real stuff.

Simply beautiful.

Once upon a time, this was the only way to make a book.

Eric is the real deal. He doesn’t just print illustrations. He does woodcuts. And uses actual wood. Which might seem self-evident, but many people don’t use real wood these days, preferring to carve out of linoleum or to just order a polymer plate that imitates the wood.

Not Eric.

Eric just doesn’t mess around. He’s our letterpress hero. Robbi was extremely impressed.

 

Now we have returned to the barn, inspired to make prints and even more aware of how much we have to learn. And how much stuff we have to track down. And how eager we are to get started.