Oaks in the Snow by Kevin Nakagawa, CA 2006

Oak Tree (Large) 179G on 3.5" Stampbord Round.

1) Streak a range of blue values on to the Stampbord starting with the lightest value and work through the range. Decide on a "top" and "bottom" for the tile. Apply most of the darker tones of blue on the top half of the tile and finish off the tile with black ink.

2) Stamp the Oak Tree (Large) in black ink coming in from the bottom of the tile.

3) Using a scratch knife, scratch out highlights on to the tree. I kept most of the scratches to one side of the tree and on the top sides of the branches. Side scratches represent light and the top sides of the branches they represent snow.

4) Snowfall was achieved by putting the round scoop style scratch knife --from the deluxe scratch knife set-- vertical to the board and a doing a "spin" removal of ink off the board. Be careful not to dig too deeply into the surface which will reveal the wood of the board. Only go so far as the white clay. Slightly larger dots were carved this way. From these dots, smaller dots were done the same way above in loose trailings.

5) White pigment ink was used on some of the dots to illuminate them by making them appear as if they were glowing.