Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking.An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. Multi-color block printing techniques like the reduction print, multi-block and blended. And suggestions on where to buy linoleum blocks, lino cut supplies and books. Personally, I like using a homemade, 'L'-shaped wooden registration jig.
The complex process of transforming Killion's on-site sketches (he doesn't work from photos) into multi-color prints involves a combination of traditional Japanese techniques with some modern innovations necessitated by the use of a printing press and oil-based inks. Briefly, the image is first reversed onto an initial or key block, which is usually the darkest and most detailed of the multiple blocks needed to make a print. The key block contains the outlines and visual information necessary to make all the succeeding blocks print their colors in register on the final print, so it is carved first and its image is then transferred to several more color blocks, which are then carved. Sometimes a different block is created for each color, and other times the process is accelerated by the use of reduction cuts, in which a color block is printed in a light color, then carved away some more, and printed again, with the second color overprinting the first. Combinations of split fountain inking (in which several colors are rolled simultaneously onto the same block, as witnessed in sky color gradations) and overlays of semi-transparent colors add to the multiple colors that can be produced by just a few blocks. The actual printing of the multi-block image begins with the making of a set of proof sheets from the key block, which are then used to insure perfect registration of each succeeding color block. Beginning with the lightest color, the first color block is set in the press and adjusted in relation to the proof sheets.
When the color block is perfectly aligned with the key block image, the handmade edition paper is then used, and a number of sheets are pulled equal to the edition number of the print (usually around 150-175, plus some overs to cover mistakes and for color experimentation, which, if unspoiled, are then numbered as 'artist's proofs'). This process is repeated with each color block, allowing a day or two between each print run for the preceding color to dry. The last block printed is the key block, after which the artist organizes the edition according to his preference for the finished prints, with the lowest numbers going to his favorites. (Each print is unique in the multi-color editions, because Killion frequently experiments with hand wiping, inking and color values throughout the run.) Color blocks involving reduction cuts are destroyed in the process; other prints have the color blocks cancelled at the end of the edition, but key blocks are saved for possible second editions with changed and recut color blocks.
Process of Wood-CutPrinting ExplainedThe Shimbi Shoin, Ltdc1916 Version (Type I)c1920 Version (Type IIa)c1920 Version (Type IIb)c1920 Version (Type IIIa)1938 Version (Type IIIb)The Shimbi Shoin, Ltd.:Process of Wood-Cut Printing Explained, Tokyo, Shimbi Shoin, Ltd, c1916 1938, 16mo (5 x 6 1/2 in) ribbon stab ties, stiff wraps with a color woodcut on the front cover, 44 pp (4 page introduction and 40 pages of woodcuts). The woodcut pages are printed on single sheets and then joined along the outside edge with glue. A step by step illustrated guide to how color woodcut prints are made. Using a single print ('Two Beauties in a Boat' by Kiyonaga) as the basis for the guide, as you go through the book a color woodblock (woodcut) print progresses through the various manufacturing stages to become a completed image. Each color (even shades of the same color) requires a different block and this is demonstrated step by step. The book contains a 4 page (actually 2 folded pages) introduction and the balance consists of 20 woodcuts (one for each color) on the left page and the resulting cumulative state of the woodblock print on the right page. The introduction is printed on thinner paper than the pages with the actual woodblock illustrations.
The woodcuts are printed on high quality tannish hosho paper. The final woodblock print in the book is the print in it's completed state and the completed print is also on the front cover.I have observed four minor variations of this book. Type I. This variety has the date just before 'Shimbi Shoin' at the conclusion of the introduction.
While all the books have the same length and width dimensions, the one bearing the 1916 date is thinner measuring.7 cm across the spine. The c1916 book has a spine covered with very thin paper which generally is partially or totally missing. Type IIa. This variety has the date January 10, 1920 just after 'Shimbi Shoin' at the conclusion of the introduction.
It is thicker than Type I, measuring 1 cm across the spine. It has a thicker paper cover over the spine and it is generally present.
The book measures 5 x 6 3/4 in. Type IIb. This variety does not have a date. It is thicker, measuring 1.2 cm across the spine.
It has a much thicker paper cover over the spine and it is generally present. I date this book at c1920. But that is not based on a positive dating. Type IIIa. A book very similar to the Type IIb book, above, but with an additional two pages in Japanese following the four page English introduction. This makes 46 pages total.
This book measures 4 3/4 x 6 7/8 in (12.2 x 17.6 cm) which is slightly taller but not as wide as the other versions. Like the Type II it is thicker measuring 1.2 cm across the spine. The title of this book is enclosed in a box and 'The Shimbi Shoin, Ltd.' Is imprinted at the foot of the front cover.
The various stages of the woodblock production depicted are almost, but not completely, the same as in the other books. Type IIIb. As the type IIIa book. However, 'The Shimbi Shoin, Ltd.' Is imprinted at the bottom but within the woodblock on the cover. The Japanese language introduction follows the Englich introduction in this book.
The book measures 5 x 7 1/8 in. On the page adjacent to the back cover, this book carries the Japanese year 2598 (1938).I am aware of one other version of this book with the same title. It had a stated printing date of March 10th of Meiji 40 (1907).
I have not examined that book so do not know if it is basically the same as those on this page.The description of the woodcut process is contained in the first four pages of text. Here is how the process is described.PROCESSES OF WOOD-CUT PRINTING EXPLAINED.The art of wood-cut printing has been practised in Japan since the eighteenth century, but it made the first really tangible advance with the development of the Ukiyoe school of painters, and during the last few decades has been extensively applied for the reproduction of famous ancient masterpieces. The successive improvements introduced in this essentially Japanese art now place it beyond all possibility of outrivalry by artists of other countries.The prints made by this process reproduce the slightest touch of the brush and the most delicate shades of colours in the originals, the result being such as can hardly be attained by lithographs. It can be truly said of Oriental paintings that except by this wood-cut process a faithful representation of the originals is impossible.
The method of engraving and rubbing demands the utmost skill in the artizans, nor can the difficulties of the modus operandi be adequately measured by the casual observer of the printed picture. We propose, therefore, to give here a brief explanation of the process in the hope of making the real value of Japanese wood-cut printing more widely known.The blocks are usually made from cherry-wood, but where very fine cutting is needed willow-wood is sometimes used. For each colour and for each shade of the same colour a separate block is provided, and for this reason the number of blocks used for a single picture often reaches several hundreds.
A drawing of the ground lines is first made, with outlines of the colour scheme, and from this a block is cut. Having obtained the ground block, a new one for each colour is cut.
Since the blocks are liable to swell or shrink with varying atmospheric conditions, it is very important to examine them carefully before going to press, and dry or moisten them as the case may demand. This part of the process requires a great amount of skill in the artizan. Several blocks are sometimes required to print one colour, as it is not always possible to print a whole mass of colour in one shade and at the same time, but a series of blocks has to be employed to produce the desired effect. Laying a single colour on the block in the right manner itself constitutes a difficulty.
The usual process of printing begins with the lightest colour and proceeds on to thickest ones, and it varies according to the nature of the colours used in the originals. The rapidity with which colours, sometimes single and sometimes double, dry, must also be taken into consideration, for it is one of the conditions that decide the order or succession of prints. The delicate shading is done with a brush. After the colour has been laid on the block with a brush, the paper is rubbed from the back with an instrument called 'baren,' made of a piece of ropework covered with a bamboo sheath, which is slightly moistened with oil to make it soft and smooth.
A specimen copy of the finished picture is kept before him by the artizan, who is extremely careful to make each copy follow the sample picture in every detail. Only water colours were used till a few years ago, but it has recently been found possible to employ even white lead.
Further we have made experiments that have resulted in our being enabled to use vedigris and Prussian blue, and there is now hardly any pigment that cannot be successfully employed in our wood-cut printing.Every variety of our pictorial art productions can be reproduced by our method of wood-cut printing, which has made a signal developement within the past few decades. The shades produced on our prints are precisely the same as in the originals in tone and materials used, the latter including gold and silver dust, Prussian blue, and verdigris.