Making Woodblock Prints E-Book

Merlyn Chesterman

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

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.

Leseprobe

MAKINGWOODBLOCKPRINTS

Merlyn Chesterman and Rod Nelson

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

© Merlyn Chesterman and Rod Nelson 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 904 9

Frontispiece: Birds by Rod Nelson.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to acknowledge the help, teaching and friendship of Chinese printmakers in both Guanlan and Shanghai. They have enriched this book with their skill and tradition. Zhao Jiachun, Guang Jun and Sunset Li Dongxia, Lily Luo Liqun and the Sweet-scented Osmanthus Primary School and pupils, Chen Yuping, Wu Enqi and Shandan, Chen Xiangning, all at Guanlan Print Base, and Mr Lu Zhiping in Shanghai. Our thanks also to Carl-Heinz Kliemann and to Eva Pietzcker for kindly allowing us to use their print images. We would also like to thank Liz Beecheno for allowing us to use Bathers, a wood engraving by her father, John Buckland-Wright, Philip Leach for the kind words, Dieter Wanczura for his great expertise, Leon Loveridge for mathematical and editorial input, Pat Millner for careful reading and comment, and our co-members of the collective ‘Pine Feroda’, Ian Phillips, Judith Westcott and Julia Manning. Additional thanks for his expertise in reduction printmaking to Ian Phillips; to Frannie Leach and Bob Seymour for their two photographs; and to Judith Westcott for being a star.

DEDICATION

For all who like woodblock prints

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

1 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WOODBLOCK PRINT

2 MATERIALS

3 EQUIPMENT AND SHARPENING

4 GETTING STARTED

5 DESIGN AND CUTTING A WOODBLOCK PRINT

6 COLOUR AND INKS

7 REGISTRATION

8 PROOF AND PRINT

APPENDIX I: ROLLERING – A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

APPENDIX II: PRINTMAKERS’ GALLERY

FURTHER INFORMATION

INDEX

FOREWORD

Woodcut by Li Dongxia.

Merlyn and Rod together have produced this extraordinary book on the art and craft of woodblock printing. It is a thorough masterpiece, combining a lucid text and superb illustrations to show all aspects of the process of making a print from the cutting, the tools and the paper, through to the inks, the types of press and finally the printing. The book is a first, and whether you are a beginner or well-established in the art of woodblock printing, it contains a very wide span of information and useful facts.

Merlyn Chesterman and Rod Nelson are both well-known in the field of printmaking and have pooled their resources to produce this book. I thoroughly recommend it and feel inspired to go and sharpen my V-shaped tools right away.

I can see this book as having the same feel as a well-thumbed cookery book.

Philip Leach, Springfield Pottery,Hartland, Devon

CHAPTER ONE

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WOODBLOCK PRINT

The ability to print an image is as old as the human race itself. A finger, dabbed in some mud, imprints upon a face. A handprint is pressed on to the wall of a cave, and then another one and another, until a pattern is made.

Tens of thousands years later, the same process developed through what we now regard as simple technologies into a process that would change the world immeasurably. There are woodblock prints on silk from China pre-dating 220CE. By the mid-seventh century in China, sophisticated prints, both image and text, were made on paper from planks of wood.