I don’t normally do a lot of fan art, but I have been re-watching a bunch of Studio Ghibli movies lately. After doing the soot sprite, I thought about Princess Mononoke‘s mask and had a thought for how it might work in eraser stamp format. I drew the design directly in Inkscape, and made laser prints for transfers again.

I have seen people coat lino blocks with ink or paint before drawing or transferring a design in order to make it easier to see what has been cut away while carving. I tried using a color laser print that included a background color, but it did not transfer well. For this, I colored the surface of the eraser with a light blue acrylic paint pen before transferring the design with acetone. It worked okay, well enough to proceed. I have some other ideas for improvement I will try for the next one.

This time, I did pretty much all of the carving with the lino knife. I was sure I would need the craft knife for some of the details, but was able to keep enough control of the pressure. There were just a few stubborn bits I used the craft knife to finish getting loose.

I think the rough lino-cut style works really well with the theme on this one.

A stylized wolf mask from the animated movie Princess Mononoke with a rectangular border has been stamped onto a rectangle of paper. The mask is a circle with circles for eyes and mouth. A couple of curved lines across the mask hint at eyebrows and nose. The circular face is surrounded by a shaggy mane and topped by two animal ears. Below the mask are three pointy objects reminiscent of horns on a necklace. The carved eraser stamp that made the impression is face up on one corner of the print. A red-handled lino cutting knife and the corner of a stamp pad are also visible.
A stylized wolf mask from the animated movie Princess Mononoke with a rectangular border has been stamped onto a rectangle of paper. The mask is a circle with circles for eyes and mouth. A couple of curved lines across the mask hint at eyebrows and nose. The circular face is surrounded by a shaggy mane and topped by two animal ears. Below the mask are three pointy objects reminiscent of horns on a necklace. The carved eraser stamp that made the impression is face up on one corner of the print. A red-handled lino cutting knife and little bits of cut rubber are also visible.
A stylized wolf mask from the animated movie Princess Mononoke with a rectangular border has been stamped onto a rectangle of paper. The mask is a circle with circles for eyes and mouth. A couple of curved lines across the mask hint at eyebrows and nose. The circular face is surrounded by a shaggy mane and topped by two animal ears. Below the mask are three pointy objects reminiscent of horns on a necklace. The carved eraser stamp that made the impression is face up on one corner of the print. A red-handled lino cutting knife and little bits of cut rubber are also visible.

Two minute process video on YouTube.

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