Making Eraser Carving Design Transfers with a Plotter and a Pencil

    Andrew Crawford June 29, 2026
    Close-up of a Bosskut Gazelle plotting cutter. There is a mechanical pencil in the tool holder, and a rectangle with a sword and flower are being drawn on a piece of tracing paper on the cutting mat.

    While talking about different ways to transfer designs to the substrate for lino (and eraser) carving, I had this kind of silly idea. One common way to transfer designs is to trace them in pencil, then rub the pencil drawing onto the carving surface. Because I don’t like the additional inaccuracy I add to the design when tracing, I mostly use other approaches. Since I am creating most of my art as vector images in Inkscape, I wondered if I could use a pencil in my Bosskut Gazelle plotting cutter to draw the design.

    It worked with a pencil (a soft-lead Blackwing in this case), but the line width changes as the tip wears down. I was aware of a new mechanical pencil from Uniball in Japan called the Kuru Toga Dive that automatically advances the lead as it is used. They are kind of expensive, but this experiment was a great excuse to add one to my toolkit here. So, I got one (in purple, of course), along with some extra-soft 2B lead.

    It worked great! This probably isn’t a practical approach for most people, unless one happens to have appropriate equipment on-hand already, and is creating vector images for their designs. Still, it was a fun experiment, and I won’t rule out actually using it in the future.

    I put together a <2-minute video short showing the process of using the plotting cutter to make a design transfer.

    Sword and Flower Hand-Carved Eraser Stamp

    Andrew Crawford June 26, 2026

    The thought that some sort of sword would make a fun eraser stamp had been bubbling in the background in my brain for awhile. I kept imagining completely different swords. This is the one that materialized when I sat down to draw one up. The tip in the ground and the flower came into the vision pretty early on. In fact, they influenced the final form of this sword.

    The blade on the original version was a lot more complicated. It was too odd, and I simplified it to this.

    I have had trouble with the silver stamp pad ink not drying very quickly (like for weeks) on some paper. The gold I used for the Star Trek insignia stamp is from the same manufacturer and has the same issue. Those took forever to set on that smooth black stock I used. With the Fabriano print making paper for the sword and flower, it seems to have soaked in enough to no longer transfer or smear.

    A stamp hand-carved from a blocky white eraser stands on one of the narrow sides on a background of crinkled dark green paper (momigami) behind two impressions made from it, one in black ink, one in silver ink. The design is a leaf-blade sword with the tip stuck into the ground next to a single flower. A stamp hand-carved from a blocky white eraser lays face-up on a background of crinkled dark green paper (momigami) behind two impressions made from it, one in black ink, one in silver ink. The design is a leaf-blade sword with the tip stuck into the ground next to a single flower. Eraser stamp imprint of a leaf-blade sword with the tip stuck into the ground next to a single flowef in black ink on white paper.

    16-second Sword and Flower stamp imprinting video on YouTube.

    Totoro Hand-Carved Eraser Stamp

    Andrew Crawford June 19, 2026
    A rectangle of white paper imprinted in blue with the older child totoro character from the animated movie My Neighbor Totoro. It has a stout, round body with a big round white patch on its stomach. There are three chevrons on its chest. It has stubby legs and arms, long pointed ears, and big oval eyes. It is holding a leaf with a long stem as an umbrella. The carved eraser that made the print is laying at an angle on the upper left corner. The eraser and print are both sitting on a sheet of handmade grass green paper with long fibrous inclusions in different shades of green.

    It seems like the older child totoro doesn’t get enough attention. I made this to help remedy that.

    I actually carved this before the Jiji stamp, but am just getting around to posting it. The detail on this one was more challenging than the carvings that preceded it. I was still using the Speedball tool, and did not have the smaller 1mm gouge yet.

    I used the Tsukineko VersaFine Clair Blue Belle stamp pad for this print.

    There is an 18-second totoro imprinting video on YouTube.

    Brushbuddy Hand-Carved Eraser Stamp

    Andrew Crawford June 13, 2026

    I have been enjoying the Witch Hat Atelier anime, based on artist Kamome Shirahama’s manga. I found an image of Brushbuddy standing on a hanging ornament in The Art of Witch Hat Atelier, and used that as a reference to create this printable monochrome version.

    Even with a #11 craft knife, the eyes were challenging. Each eye is just two millimeters across. The rest was done with the 1mm Flexcut gouge.

    The green ink (Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival stamp pad) bleeds a lot on the Fabriano printmaking paper I have been using with the eraser stamps. This print is on standard Bristol.

    A couple of white rectangles of paper are imprinted with an image of long fuzzy cartoon creature wrapped around a cord suspending a ball with a four-pointed star. The image is reversed out of the ink making up the print. There is one print in an avocado green and another in black. The carved white eraser (stained with green ink) rests face-up on the corner of the green print. The background is crinkled purple paper (momigami).

    There is a 17 second Brushbuddy stamp impression-making video on YouTube.

    Celtic Key Pattern Hand-Carved Eraser Stamp

    Andrew Crawford June 9, 2026

    Here is a hand-carved eraser stamp of one of my Celtic key patterns in celebration of the International Day of Celtic Art, celebrated by dozens of people worldwide!

    A blocky white eraser has been carved with a Celtic key pattern, a maze-like pattern consisting of angled lines and triangles. The raised surface of the design is stained black. The stamp stands on one small edge on a surface of blue handmade paper. In front of the stamp is a rectangular piece of white paper that has been imprinted with the design in black.

    There is a video with about a minute of real-time excerpts from the ~30 minutes it took to carve this eraser stamp with one of my Celtic key patterns, along with the final imprinting. The surface has been painted blue. A laser print of the design was placed face-down in the paint while it was wet, and allowed to dry. We start with the dampened paper being rubbed away to reveal the design for carving.

    Moth Wizard Hand-Carved Eraser Stamp

    Andrew Crawford June 5, 2026

    Meet Moth Wizard! I am taking a break from fan art this time to do a quick original-ish character. I am pretty sure I have seen a similar idea somewhere.

    The white blocky erasers are a little longer than the standard pink ones. It’s nice that they don’t have the skew on the z-axis. They carve pretty much the same.

    I have been experimenting with different techniques for transferring the designs. For this one, I transferred a laser print to the bare eraser with acetone, then colored over it with a broad yellow Sharpie (to get a contrast with the white eraser to make what has been carved more visible).

    A rectangular piece of white paper imprinted with an anthropomorphized, cartoonish moth character with five four-pointed stars in various sizes above its head. The wings look like a cloak around a very simple body. The face is white with two black spots for eyes. There are feathered antennae atop the head. The blocky white carved eraser that made the impression is laying face-up on the upper left corner of the print. Both are on a background of deep blue paper with a single metallic silver leaf inclusion.

    Three-minute sped-up Moth Wizard full carving video on YouTube.