A Brief History of Wood Engraving

The establishment of wood engraving as a viable art form began with Thomas Bewick (1753 - 1828.)  His work expanded wood engraving from a miniature relief print, to one of sculptural dimensions.  He used a light source to draw attention to the focal point instead of letting the image itself demand central interest.  Also, by using white lines against a dark background, he created a more dimensional and dramatic effect.

In the 19th century, wood engraving became the most prominent means of visual documentation in newspapers and magazines.  Wood engraving was chosen over lithography because it was more cost efficient and over photography because its process had not been developed enough to be practical.  In the late 1800's, a shift in attitude and available technology led reputable wood engravers to become independent artists.

A couple of wood engraving tools and two wood engraving blocks (The Adventures of Mr. Pig (left), and Cotton Bleedin' Pig )

JOANNE PRICE

Wood Engraving

The process of wood engraving has influenced the manner in which I approach my work.  The wood engraving block illustrates the tactile and sculptural nature of relief carving.  I start by engraving a darkened wood block so I can see the form emerge as lines or textures of light.  By cutting away areas of the block, I am producing areas that will not print.  The carved relief image is then printed, resulting in a mirror image impression of the block.

Wood engravings utilize the end grain of trees to attain minute details during carving and resiliency during printing.  To better illustrate this, imagine a tree cut in half; if you can picture a cross section which displays the tree's growth rings, then you have successfully pictured end grain.  Traditionally, wood engravings were done on boxwood, an extremely hard wood.  The scarcity of this wood has led to the use of other hard woods, such as maple, castello, maracaibo, cherry and pear.

The process of wood engraving involves the use of tools similar to those used in copper engraving.  The end-section of an engraving tool is the cutting edge of the blade.  The width and shape of the tool's end-section determines the width and character of the line carved.

The artist "pulls a print" from her 1913 Vandercook proof press.  The inked end grain block sits on the press bed showing the process of transferring the ink to paper to create a print (the red coloring was done by hand for this particular print.)