How I Make Woodcuts Wood Engravings

An indispensable guide to creating woodcut masterpieces, this volume offers instructions ranging from using the simplest strokes to making intricate multicolor print blocks. Detailed, easy-to-follow instructions are complemented by ninety-eight illustrations, most of them in color. "I love the woodcut as a form of artistic expression because it requires the simplest materials and comparative muscular strength," observes author Hans Alexander Mueller. "I love to exploit the full use of my five senses when wood, paper, and color come within my grasp." An accomplished artist whose work has illustrated numerous great literary works, Mueller explains his philosophy and techniques for creating art from the simplest materials. Readers learn about the tools of the trade, how to make plank woodcut and end-grain engravings, and how to use the medium to express themselves artistically.

If there is, indeed, nothing lovelier than a tree, Connecticut-based artist Bryan Nash Gill shows us why. Creating large-scale relief prints from the cross sections of trees, the artist reveals the sublime power locked inside their arboreal rings. Gill creates patterns not only of great beauty but also year-by-year records of the life and times of fallen or damaged logs. He rescues the wood from the property surrounding his studio and neighboring land, extracts and prepares blocks of various species (including ash, maple, oak, spruce, and willow), then makes prints by carefully following and pressing the contours of rings and ridges until the intricate designs transfer from tree to paper. The results are colored, nuanced shapes—mesmerizing impressions of the structural integrity hidden inside each tree. These exquisitely detailed prints are collected and published here for the first time, with an introduction by esteemed nature writer Verlyn Klinkenborg and an interview with the artist describing his labor-intensive printmaking process. Also featured are Gill's series of printed lumber and offcuts, such as burls, branches, knots, and scrubs. Woodcut will appeal to anybody who appreciates the grandeur and mystery of trees, as well as those who work with wood and marvel at the rich history embedded in its growth.

Wood Engraving is an easily followed, practical manual on wood engraving for the beginner, written by a master in the field. The processes of printing and engraving are clearly explained, together with their material requirements. Up-to-date variations on techniques, and all the tips and methods that the author has found helpful in 30 years as a practitioner are included. The book is also a beautiful art object in its own right as Simon Brett's work is highly collectible. This book is a must have for all those who treasure his work and fine wood engraving in general.

Woodblock printing is an ancient art form, which produces beautiful, subtle and lively pieces with just a few simple materials. This book introduces the art, and shares technical information and ideas for those with more experience. A wide range of exciting examples of printed woodcuts are shown along with advice on materials and tools, and a step-by-step guide to sharpening. Techniques to achieve quality prints and perfect registration are covered too. Drawing on the vibrant living traditions from China and Japan, it is both a technical guide and an inspiration. Beautifully illustrated with 160 colour photographs.

" From the artist whom Nicholas Basbanes calls "the most important book illustrator working in America today" comes a primer on the art of wood engraving, a pursuit which one can "learn" in less than an hour but which one can master only through years of persistence, dedication, and indefatigable energy. Learning to engrave a block, says Barry Moser, is like learning to play the piano: it is all practice, practice, practice, all teaching the muscles how to perform the basics. At first your every gesture will be halting, labored, and self-conscious; then at last will come the moment when, like Ashkenazy at the keyboard, you can forget about "process," about "technique," and focus all your mental energy on making art. "There are no shortcuts," warns Moser. "Mastery comes only with time, work, and repetition. A great number of bad wood engravings must be made before one can expect to make a good one. Once your muscles know how to do their work, once they know how to carve thin white lines into boxwood, your mind will be free to invent." There is a lifetime of knowledge in this book: how to prepare a printing block; how to think in the medium's properties of line, shape, and ink; how to transfer a drawing onto a block. There is advice, too, on tools: not only on gravers (burins, scorpers, stipplers, and spitzstickers) but also on lights (you'll need a good strong one) and engraving bags (the leather pillows that cradle the blocks as you carve). Here is how to ink, how to choose paper, and how to print. Here is how to fail, how to move on, and how to acquire the habit of work that leads to real achievement. Wood Engraving is an art lesson and a life lesson. And because it's a book by Barry Moser, it is also a gallery of prints and beautiful to behold."--Publisher's website.