Brad Woodard

A mokuhanga portrait of Brad Woodard, produced using the water-based Japanese woodblock method that distinguishes Gil Alares's Zaragoza practice from oil-based Western relief printing. The technique requires the paper to be kept damp throughout printing so that pigment is absorbed into the washi rather than sitting on its surface, which produces the characteristic matte finish and slight tonal variation between impressions. A portrait of this kind is typically separated into a key block carrying line work and several color blocks for flat areas and gradations, each pulled by hand with a [baren](/glossary/baren) rather than a press. Where [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) portraitists such as Sharaku and Utamaro worked within the conventions of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) and [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), contemporary mokuhanga practitioners like Gil Alares apply the same physical vocabulary — registration, layering, baren pressure, [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) — to subjects outside that historical canon. Her presence in the Mokumap directory situates this print within an active international network rather than a Japanese workshop tradition.