Laurence Hyde (1914-1987) was a Canadian graphic artist, painter and film maker in the mid 20th century.  He's famous for a few reasons but primarily for his wordless novel "Southern Cross".  This's made up of 118 woodcuts about the effects of US atomic bomb testing on the inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands.  I love how he captures the waves of the ocean and explosions so convincingly.  This is hard to do on a woodcut.  Here're some prints from that novel.

The work of Belgian graphic artist Frans Masereel (1889-1972) was hugely influential on Lynd Ward.  Masereel also created wordless novels out of woodcuts.  He's considered by some to be the greatest woodcut artist of our time.  Again, I was drawn to his style of illustration.  Here's some of his work.

I was drawn to American graphic artist Lynd Ward (1905-1985) for his wordless novels.  These novels are telling a story made entirely out of woodcuts.  His images are quite graphic, some are hard to look at but I love his style.  He's also the first artist I've come across to make a wordless novel of woodcuts.  Before him, I didn't know anybody did this.  His most famous one is "God's Man" in 1929.  Here are some images from that novel.

Someone else who's work I like is the work of british wood engraver John O'Connor (1913-2004).  After serving in the british army for most of his life, John studied at Hastings School of Art.  He went on to become a lecturer and do illustrations for texts like " The Funeral Oration of Pericles".  I love the style of his woodcuts.  Here're a few.

Similar to Gwenda Morgan, I was similarly influenced by an old Austrian-German wood engraver called Carl Theodor Thiemann (1881-1966).  His style is similar to Gwenda Morgan's and I love how he depicts the snow capped landscape of the Austrian environment.  He was also an etcher, lithographer and painter, but I admire him for his woodcuts.  Here are a few.  

From a woodcut point of view, I was really influenced by a mid 20th century English printmaker called Gwenda Morgan.  Her prints depict the Sussex countryside and her natural environment.  I enjoy her style and the way she depicted her scenes.  Here are some of her prints.

I'm a big fan of the black and white style of printmaking.  I love how everything she does is stripped down to its simplest form, almost like a silhouette.

This is where Edward Hopper really influenced me.  After Spanish Point, we were asked to make some prints of Limerick City in the form of a story or book with our own story lines.  Here, I just documented my journey to college on a long piece of assotate.

Here are just the close ups of each image.

I took elements of Edward Hopper's style of etching and tried to put my own spin on it.  I like his use of contrast of black and white as I think it stands out a lot more.  Also, I like how all the lines of his etchings and illustrations can be seen throughout his work.  

While we were in Spanish Point in Co. Clare, we spent three days making prints of our environment like the cliffs, the beach, objects we found on the beach or anywhere else, and so on.  This was the first time in a year that I got the chance to do some lino prints and woodcuts.  I really enjoy making these kind of prints and these are what I did.

This is a lino cut of some cliffs surrounding the beach.

Here I just etched back into it to see what result I'd get.

This is a woodcut of an old piece of rope that I found at the beach.  I always enjoyed drawing rope as the pattern always interested me.

This is a woodcut of some people kicking a ball around on the beach.

Overall, I think the trip to Spanish Point was a success!