DOI Heft:
No. 242 (May 1913)
DOI Artikel:Salaman, Malcolm C.: Wood-engraving for colour in Great Britain
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21160#0307
Wood-Engraving for Colour
parent. Then with starch-paste the design is stuck
face downwards on to the block, which is usually
either cherry or pear wood, and sometimes syca-
more. When the paper is dry it is sand-papered
away until the lines are quite visible on the wood,
sweet oil helping to define them. The artist next
cuts round all the line with a little pointed Japanese
knife, and clears away the intervening spaces of
wood with any tools—chisels or gouges— of con-
venient sizes. That completes the outline block,
but rectangular register marks have to be cut upon
it, an eighth of an inch deep, to ensure the exact
printing of the colour-blocks. These have next to
be cut, and the colours—the powders mixed with
rice-paste and water—are applied with flat brushes
of Siberian bear. The actual printing is done, not
with the roller press, but by hand-rubbing, the
damp paper being necessarily absorbent and pre-
viously sized. Parchment size is recommended.
Now, Mr. Sydney Lee, an artist always versatile
in the use of mediums, is an accomplished wood-
engraver in the white-line tradition of Bewick—as
witness his fine print, The Limestone Rock ; but he
has taken very kindly to the broad open-line
cutting required by the decorative colour-print.
And not only in technique does he find himself in
sympathy with the Japanese, his sense of design
has also derived inspiration from them, without
being imitative. This inspiration is rather as to
the suggestive point of view, and the synthetic
feeling for those essential lines and surfaces which
make for decoration. Although St. Ives Bay is
shown here in monochrome, its colour, in flat
surfaces, is fully suggested by its absolute rightness
of line- and tone-spacing. This one may say also
of The Bridge, which is reproduced here from the
night version, printed from six blocks, the daylight
effect requiring eight blocks to represent its sunny
tones. The Sloop Inn (p. 287) is an impressive and
original print, in which bright moonlight, height-
ened by the warm glow of lamplight, is vividly
presented. Seven blocks were used for this.
No one seems happier with knife and colours on
the wood-block than Mrs. Austen Brown, and The
Windmih, with which we represent her felicity of
expression in the colour-print, is certainly not the
1 THE BRIDGE
284'
parent. Then with starch-paste the design is stuck
face downwards on to the block, which is usually
either cherry or pear wood, and sometimes syca-
more. When the paper is dry it is sand-papered
away until the lines are quite visible on the wood,
sweet oil helping to define them. The artist next
cuts round all the line with a little pointed Japanese
knife, and clears away the intervening spaces of
wood with any tools—chisels or gouges— of con-
venient sizes. That completes the outline block,
but rectangular register marks have to be cut upon
it, an eighth of an inch deep, to ensure the exact
printing of the colour-blocks. These have next to
be cut, and the colours—the powders mixed with
rice-paste and water—are applied with flat brushes
of Siberian bear. The actual printing is done, not
with the roller press, but by hand-rubbing, the
damp paper being necessarily absorbent and pre-
viously sized. Parchment size is recommended.
Now, Mr. Sydney Lee, an artist always versatile
in the use of mediums, is an accomplished wood-
engraver in the white-line tradition of Bewick—as
witness his fine print, The Limestone Rock ; but he
has taken very kindly to the broad open-line
cutting required by the decorative colour-print.
And not only in technique does he find himself in
sympathy with the Japanese, his sense of design
has also derived inspiration from them, without
being imitative. This inspiration is rather as to
the suggestive point of view, and the synthetic
feeling for those essential lines and surfaces which
make for decoration. Although St. Ives Bay is
shown here in monochrome, its colour, in flat
surfaces, is fully suggested by its absolute rightness
of line- and tone-spacing. This one may say also
of The Bridge, which is reproduced here from the
night version, printed from six blocks, the daylight
effect requiring eight blocks to represent its sunny
tones. The Sloop Inn (p. 287) is an impressive and
original print, in which bright moonlight, height-
ened by the warm glow of lamplight, is vividly
presented. Seven blocks were used for this.
No one seems happier with knife and colours on
the wood-block than Mrs. Austen Brown, and The
Windmih, with which we represent her felicity of
expression in the colour-print, is certainly not the
1 THE BRIDGE
284'