Wood Cut Printing

RESEARCH ON WOODCUTTING IN RESPONSE TO PRINT WORKSHOP #2

From looking at the examples presented in our Wood Cutting induction I was able to get a pretty rough idea of some of the different visual techniques used. One of the things I first noticed was as the entire block starts off as a positive print, this filled in effect is often used to create the borders and backgrounds. By using this artists often created elaborate backgrounds and frames for their pieces, or have a tendency to use this space to immediately cover large areas of the paper in material, whereas in the creation of other prints these areas might be left white. I found this quite technique altering as backgrounds and filler areas of an image are always something I have struggled to include, as most of my images are isolated on a white background or intended to be pasted to wall ultimately. I tried to use this to its full potential in my print, emphasising the amount of printable area by maintaining most of it as a relief section and only carving out the areas of highlight and detail.

Upon further research there were lots of online prints, which followed this suit, such as the example on the right, an a4-ish sized woodcut by American painter and landscape artist Birger Sandzen.

I was interested to find that, in relation to my previous research into Chinese art forms, the woodcut actually was first created in China, with the earliest surviving example dated to the Han dynasty before 220 AD, before reaching to Europe centuries later in 1300. The use of hatching, which can be seen on the Sandzen print to give half-tone values to the sky, was developed later still by the Dutch artist Erhard Reuwich. They became most prolific when it was realised that the prints could be combined with wooden lettering blocks and turned into the most common medium of book production until the dawn of the Renaissance.

During the German Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer became one of the most highly skilled woodcutters in history not only in his level of detail, but also the size he was able to achieve. Above is one of his works, "Apocalypse", demonstrating his attention to detail. He also created the world's largest Renaissance woodcut, measuring 3x3.5m and comprising of 195 smaller wooden blocks.

I also looked into some more contemporary examples of woodcuts and found a stunning example by collaborative art pair Paul Roden & Valerie Lueth, also known as the Tugboat Printshop. With traditionally carved cuts, it appears as if a black positive of the design is screen printed onto a high quality wood plate before being carved out exactly to the printed design. Because of this initial use of a high control process it allows an incredibly pristine finish to be created to a high level of detail. 

The way they also show the demonstrative process for creating the print in photos also rekindles the old idea of this as a traditional art form with craftsmanship at it's core and really shows the love they put into their craft. I think this method really appeals to me as it reinforces my perfectionist compulsions and makes me think of the more contemporary ways woodcutting can be used. I also really like how the thinness of the paper required for a relief print such as this lends an ethereal quality to the work, especially with a subject matter like this detailed, spirit-like moth.

In one final example I found of an unusual or exceptional use of woodcut printing, Jason Dean uses a literal slice across the grain of a slab of wood, and lets the rings within the tree become the art itself. I really like this idea, not only because it is a way of celebrating the beauty of nature, but also because it could be interpreted to incorporate industrialisation on a natural form, especially in this industry standard 4x4 width. As well as this the rings when printed have a geometric quality to them which I feel is suggestive to my work on spirography and the golden ration in nature. It also suggests a history or heritage, as each new ring on a tree trunk is linked to another year worth of growth and experience.