Why wood engraving is still being used today - Dissertation Example

? Topic:Why wood engraving is still being used today? Introduction Wood engraving is an art in which printing is done on a block of wood and has a long history in the European art world. Wood engraving is a kind of art produced on wood by making carving on it and later making prints on any material with the aid of ink. The print is made on a block of wood and portions of wood are carved to bring the image on it. It has enormous appeal and aesthetic value, which made it a distinctive art form to create and admire. Unlike copper and steel engraving, wood engraving had an organic element to it, which made it an art to be cherished the wood engraved art forms are known for its ornamental beauty and attraction and had its origin in the eighteenth century. Wood engraving is one of the important relief processes apart from wood cut and linocut and is used till today for its elegance and antiquity. Wood engraving is in essence only a form of wood cut, but in effect and appearance it is quiet different. Wood engraving is the art of creating figures on the wooden block and was a very valuable art form in the olden times. The wood engraving art was previously known to the ancient Egyptians and they used it on rings and stamps. 1 The custom of stamping bricks in this manner was very general both with the Egyptians and ancient Babylonians. Even the Greeks and Romans also practiced this art before the introduction of book printing .Chinese men also had the history of wood engraving in early period of time. It is believed that this art form got introduced to Europe in the late thirteenth century by some travelers visited the place. 1Chatto, W.A. (2005). A history of wood-engraving. Retrieved from http://www.antiquemapsandprint s.com/a-history-of-wood-engraving.htm The History of Wood Engraving Wood engraving gave a golden chance to European countries to grow out of olden wood cutting tradition. It is very difficult and impossible to trace the real origin of wood engraving as reflection of this art can be seen in many civilizations. 2 No man or group of men has been able to trace definitely the origin of the ancient art wood engraving. It was in sixteenth and fifteenth century; this art has got prominence by producing art works of unique beauty and precision. The Chinese, Greeks and Romans in ancient times used this art form to produce various images and figures. Before the arrival of mechanized printing the Chinese people used wood block printing which was a type of wood engraving work. The art of printing with wooden blocks were prevalent in China before 600 century and Europeans brought this art from Chinese land. The Chinese have wooden engraved wooden block which is used for their complex characters and symbols and were superior in quality than that of the European counterparts. Moreover, the Egyptians and Babylonians also used wooden engraving to make stamps on documents and impressions for the benefit of royal families. After the nineteenth century, the influence of the Gothic students on Spain brought about monograms and stamps made out of wooden engraving. This practice was mainly done to overcome the inefficiency and inaccuracy of hand writings. It is believed that around thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Italian and German officials used frequently wooden engraved stamps to affix their official documents. 2Furner, J.W. (2010). A history of wood engraving. Retrieved from http://typocurious.com/a-history-of wood-engraving/ However today‘s form of wooden engraving can be dedicated to Thomas Berwick who was the pioneer of wood engraving art. Thomas Bewick was born on August 12th in county of Northumber and his father name was John Bewick who was a land scale colliery by profession. Unfortunately, Thomas displayed a high skill in early years of his life and this can be contributed to his ability to observe natural objects and manifest them in his work.3Thomas was apprentice at the age of fourteen, to Mr. Ralph Beilbey of lived Newcastle. He was a respectable copper engraver, and had very much reputation in the locality. Finding the accuracy and perfection in Thomas, Mr. Ralph suggested the former in building his talent on wood engraving, which was a long lost art form in then times. Thomas was not a good scholar, but his skills in drawing were excellent. Thomas from his youth itself had a keen sight on animals and nature and projects his talent in drawing images of foreign and domestic animals. Bewick brought lot of innovation and techniques in to wood engraving art and left a unique imprint on the art work. He devoted all his life to wooden engraving and depicted his art mostly through domestic animals. Thomas had a distinctive style of wood engraving, as he used hard wood and used fine tool as metal engravers. His work left a pathway for the future artists to follow and encouraged and inspired them in notable way. 3Griffith, A. (1996). Prints and printmaking: an introduction to the history and techniques .California: The University of California Press Evolution of Wood Engraving The wood engraving procedure originated in China, moved on to Greek and Roman Empire then its spread to Germany, Italy and Holland. Each country has its own contribution to the wood engraving art but Venetians gave it a kick start which got forwarded to Germany, where it received much attention .During fifteenth century, and wood engraving was used by teachers to teach biblical subjects to students and also was used to make playing cards. The earlier Latin prints showed a wooden engraving where saint Christopher was shown to carry savior along the sea and the print was dated 1423.Gradually Europeans gave birth to what is called illustration in which the wooden blocks with impression gave prints on the paper. These were called the “wooden books”. During fifteenth century,“wooden books” became a general practice in Germany, France and Italy and it carried along to England. During this time Caxton a pioneer in wooden books printing introduced a book on chess utilizing a unique printing art in England. But eventually the wood engraving art suffered a set back in Europe during sixteenth century .However in 1506, an artist called Albrecht Durer’s introduced new form of wood engraving work that gained him the name of the best engraver of all times. His work was exclusively beautiful and brought about a new hope to this forgotten art. After him came the Holbein and then the English engraver Thomas Bewick. The Process of Wood Engraving The wood engraving is an art from in which block of woods are used and carving are made out once the printing has been imposed on it. For this art form the kind of wood used are hard wood or box wood. As the box wood has a small diameter, large blocks are made by bolting smaller blocks together. Here the wood is cut across the end grain and not along the grain like wood cut. As a result the tool used for the process is different, instead of using a knife a graver is used to make carvings out of wood. This graver is made of steel and has sharp end of oblique shape. 2“ Engraver is a small steel rod of square or lozenge section , with its point sharpened obliquely”22 The engraver has a tilted handle at the slight angle to the blade. The engraver holds the handle against his palm and pushes it harder on to the wooden piece with the help of thumb. By this process a “V” shaped incision is produced on the wooden block. To make different types of lines for special characters on the wood the engravers use various kind of engraving tools. In order to get a grey shade on the block the use of scrapers are also used... A trained and skilled engraver was able to produce fine mesh of lines which when printed gave special optical effect same like water color wash. This kind of style and appeal was unique to wood engraving and cannot be achieved by wood cutting and linocut. An engraver needs enough quantity of boxwood, proofing ink, oil stone for the purpose of sharpening the tools and paper for proof taking. The paper used must be very thin as it is very tedious to take a proof on thick kind of paper. If the paper is India paper, then best results can be obtained. The bench or the table on which the work is performed must be very steady and firm. It is not recommended for the worker to be bending unnecessary on the table, but he should be upright in position. The height of the table and the chair should be proper to enable the worker to view the engraving without the strain on the eye. The chair must have proper length enough to support the back and shoulders of the engraver. The comfort of the engraver during work is of utmost importance. The worker should also make sure that the tools are sharpened enough before he commences the work. If the tools are sharp pointed, it will easily have grip on the wood otherwise they tend to slide over. It is recommended to keep a spare box wood while the testing of the tools is performed. While holding the tool , the angle of 45 degree is most appropriate .And while sharpening the tool, care should be taken that the tool should be rubbed up and down the along the length of the oil stone. It would be beneficial if lubricating oil is used on the stone to aid sharpening. For the modern wood engraving the box wood is mostly used. In making large cuts the pear wood and other wood with same type of grain and fiber is used. The old engravers used mostly used pear wood for the need of carving their outline and a knife pointed sharp is used for this purpose. The best box is the one which possess the yellow color like that of the gold complete through its surface. Such box enables clear cuts as they are dense, tenacious and have close grain. Some artists before starting the drawing painted their box white or rub the surface with mix of brick and water. The Tools Used in Wooden Engraving In general there are ten engraving tools which can be used for the purpose of wooden engraving. However, the beginners can initiate engraving with the help of five tools. These tools can be described as below: 1)Tint Tools :The length of this tool is around 3 ? inches in length and when it is held in hand properly the point of the tool should not cross beyond the tip of the thumb. On purchase they are longer than 6 inches in length and in order to accommodate the tool for the engraver’s use it is ground down to the preferred length. There is an ink mark on the tool which gives indication to the maker to the extent to which the tool has to be grinded. The tool’s one end id flat which is the wooden handle and the other is oblique metal tip. This kind of shape allows convenience for the engraver to freely pass the tool over the wooden surface. Out of the ten tools, six of them are known as tint tools. 2) Spit Sticks: This is the tools which are used to broaden the cuts on the wood by pressing the pointed end of the tool deeper in to the wooden surface. This tool also can be used as tint tool, if they are worked from one depth. The sides of this tool are rounded, and can be cut through the wood with great ease. Sometimes in place of spit sticks, a tool known as gravers are also used which have flat sides like tint tools. This tool allows same cut as spit ticks but allows greater spread on wood. The special feature of a spit sticks is the smoothness and ease it provided in wooden cutting. 3)Scauper : This tool has the most width than any other tool used in wood engraving, and is used to clear the wood scattered around the engraving. It is preferred that the belly portion of scauper remains round in shape and too square point will not allow the cutting very sharply. It will be desirable to have scauper with square point similar to large tint tool that will help in taking out the corners. For the beginners, the tools needed will be two tint tools, two spit sticks and two scauper. 4) Chisel : A gouge here is used as chisel along with a mallet, to carve away all the wood surrounding the carving order to let the engraving in relief. This is very essential when the prints are performed directly from the wooden block. In the situation when the hand proof is taken, this process in not required. A small chisel or flat tool is needed when edges have to be lowered to give whiter look or for cutting trimmer edges or making small plugs. It should be noted that the style of the work depends greatly on the point of the tool used. The people who have difficulty in buying a tool can buy one tool and make others by a blacksmith on order. Other Equipments Used in Engraving I)Sand Bag : This is a kind of bag made with two pieces of leather sewn with sand inside it and forms a round shape. The sand is filled inside the bag just moments before the last stitches are made. The sandbags are essential when printing is taken directly from the wooden blocks. While taking hand proofs , sand bags are not used. Here in place of leather any durable thing can be used. ii)Magnifying Glass : The magnifying glass is used when the user’s eyesight is poor and defective. This is used to avoid strain, and it is recommended to use a double lens chic is big enough to cover the wooden block of the size 2 or 3 inches. ii)Globe with Water : This is used to focus the light on to the work and is used when the engraving is done at night time. The light of the lamp should be directly behind the globe filled with water. In the place of globe with water a bull’s eye lens can also be used. This is done to reduce the strain caused by direct light of the lamp. If artificial lights are used the outcome can be bad work with eye straining. iii) Roller and Slab: This is used for the purpose of inking the engraving while taking the proof. Leather is the best thing to be used for roller but composition is the usually used one. Caxton used in his method the dabber, which is quiet good one to be used. iv)Burnisher : This is used for rubbing the proof away after when the inking of the wooden block is performed. The best metal to be used for this purpose is steel, or else a bone or a teaspoon can be used. The nature of wood engraving art Wood engraving is a refined version of wood cutting, where carving is made on a block of wood and when ink applied to the raised edges of the carving prints design on the pressed material. Wood cutting is done on the side of a wood, whereas wood engraving is performed on the end grain of the wood. Wood engraving is a technique of printing which was the only way in which the people of ancient times could view images and pictures. The wood engraving produced a very detailed and finer image as the engraving is done on the harder surface. The tool used in wood cutting involves coarser ones while engraving uses finer tools. Wood engraving is a rare and unique art which requires very established skill and expertise. This art completely rest on the imaginative power and will of the artists as he can bring forth a numerous amount of print and designs as his mind unfolds creatively. There are no shortcuts in the art, a thorough practice and devotion is the only way to attain perfection of the art of wood engraving. A person has to make a number of bad wood works before he makes a master piece. Wood engraving is in itself a language and a good knowledge of its grammar is the only way to reach proficiency. In this art the muscles of the hand and forearms will do the most of learning as this is used much in the practice of the wooden engraving act. The Craftsmanship needed for Wood Engraving All the early wood engraving work was primarily wood cuts. The soft wood blocks were cut on the plank side and carvings were made, but it did not retain the integrity after numerous uses. Then later the wood engraving method emerged which was superior in nature and more intricate. Bewick is the father of wood engraving art ,and he used engraving tool on the end grain of the wood. An engraver should give importance to the medium wood and its nature of expansion and contraction. Wood engraving is an art form which needs intense craftsmanship and keen eyesight the engraver has to hold the tool between thumb and index finger and need to make carvings on the wooden block. The artist must have thorough knowledge about the nature of the wood on which he is applying his engraving skill. The wood engraver requires a combination of talents like, creativity, imaginative power, talent, devotion, intricacy and passion to be innovative. The lines which are to be white in the impression are cut in the block with fine gravers and the ink which laid on the block form the mass black. To get the fine lines and shapes for the image, the engraver needs to be very precise and articulate in his carving procedure. In this process, the drawings should also be penciled on the block with great artistic skill. It is a very time consuming art, and need lot of hardworking and perfection from artists to create one piece of art. The dissimilarity of wood cut and wood engraving Woodcut is sometimes known as xylography and is widely used in a printmaking. In this image is carved on to a wooden block in which printing parts are left untouched and non printing surface is cut away. Wood cut is the oldest method practiced for printing, while wood engraving came up much later. However, wood cutting is lightly involved in the wood engraving process. Wood cutting became unpopular with the emergence of metal graining. In wood cut, print is made along the length of the plank wood where as in wood engraving the carving is done across the grain. Wood cut is the oldest printing method and has simple basic principles. In wood cut, wood is of soft nature and in wood engraving hard woods are used. The origin of wood cuts is obscure and the origin of modern wood engraving can be somewhat credited to Thomas Bewick form England. The tool used in wood cutting is mainly a knife and the tool used in wood engraving is tool called burin. Wood cut is a cheaper method of printing than wood engraving but the durability is less compared to latter. The decline and popularity of wood engraving happened with the emergence of metal engraving and wood engraving again became popular due to the effort of Thomas Bewick. Wood cuts are suitable for more robust kind of look and gives chance to make wide range of artistic detailing on the wooden block. 4Artist such as Albrecht Durer disseminated his work widely through woodcuts which were cut by professional craftsmen after he had drawn on the block” 4Westley, A. (2006). Woodcut. Retrieved fromhttp://www.swanseaprintworkshop.org.u k/printmak ingprocesses/woodcut.htm The reason why wood engraving used till today Wood engraving is used in the ancient times for printing purpose, and teaching through images the lifestyles of people around the world. But nowadays, there are new technical ways to do printing and wood engraving remained popular as an antique art from. Historically the use of wood engraving was varied from printing publication to art images. Even this art was used in ancient times to make novels and story publishing. Today with the invention of computer and other technical devices the need for wood engraving has become nil. In today’s society the only need of wood engraving is just as an ornamental piece of art from ancient history. Wood engraving is an art that has remained in the history for many generations. It was previously done with the use of a knife and a piece of wooden block .But with time many sophisticated tools emerged and the beauty of the work also got upgraded. Nowadays, there are more power tools available, which create a wooden engraving with more efficiency and precision. Many ethnics and aborigine cultures have taken wood engraving to a precious art, people have also taken wood engraving as a hobby and also profession engravers are creating engraving on wooden surfaces to make exquisite furniture’s. This art is now more popular among visual artist where in the creativity of a person on wood can be measured sharply. The Famous Wood Engravers 1)Thomas Bewick : He is the pioneer of wood engraving and is the role model of the kind of engraving art followed in the current times. He was born in England, and as a child he used to perform engraving on wood under the guidance of his master Ralph Beilby .Thomas was well known for his depiction of art in the form of animals on wooden blocks. His art forms like “Water Birds” and “Land Birds” were well known for the artistic wealth he possessed. Thomas was famous for using his finger print as signature and died in 1828. 2) Edward Calvert: Edward is an English artist who practiced the art of painting and print making .His early art works was greatly influenced by William Blake. This artist is known for his elegant and unique miniature wood engraving works. He was also known for copper engraving works and most of his works were not published until his son took the initiative in 1893.The British Museum is home to his 65 drawings and 45 prints. 3) Sue Scallard : She is an artist who was born in Kent, England and got education in Camberwell School of Arts. It was in Royal College of Art, where she got the education for wood engraving at Yvonne Sargon. She was expressive on wood in seascape, landscape and architecture and was influenced mainly by 20th century wood engravers. 4)Robert Gibbing : He is the engraver who was born in Ireland and also is the founder of the “ society of wood engravers”. He was very experimental with his skill on engraving ,and turned many of his drawings to engraving art .He has decorated many of publication with his art of wood engraving and all this was done by his own. Distinction between the work of two famous engravers: Thomas Bewick and Sue Scallard Both the engravers Thomas Bewick, and Sue Scallard belonged to England, but their period of existence greatly varied. Thomas Bewick lived during 18th century and Sue Scallard was born in 20th century. Thomas is the pioneer and god father of wood engraving of modern times, while Sue is one among the famous wood engravers. Thomas did not have education from any college to pursue the art of wood engraving while sue studied in Arts College and got expertise in this field. Thomas was well known for his engraving in animal and bird forms while sue liked landscapes and seascapes to be depicting in her art. Comparing the work of both we can find that, Thomas works are definitely intricate and richer than sue scalar’s work. Thomas works were famous for the light and textures and they used it specifically on animal images. He raised the value of wood engraving to the highest peak and brought new life into this art form. On the other side, Sue is interested in experimenting the various textures and patterns possible with different engraving tools. The works of sue are mostly, trees, mountains and architectural design .Thomas was a naturalist and loved to engrave images of animals and birds in wooden blocks. Thomas is the inventor of the contemporary wood engraving art form while Sue is an artist inspired by Thomas and comparison can be limited. The need for engravers to be imaginative and Creative It is very important for the wood engravers to be creative and imaginative so that they can bring out various art forms in the wooden block. A good engraver has a lot of creative power, and he uses it in a very wise manner to bring out exquisite wooden engraved art pieces. Wood engraving is not an ordinary craft. It requires extreme artistic skills, craftsmanship and fine imagination. If one has to make beautiful art crafts, he has to choose different style to work from. Most of engravers apart from engravers are also painters, sculptors or painters. They have this talent to bring out artist hidden in them. In the wood engraving it is need that the engraver draws the image on the wooden block , so it is very helpful if he is painting artists or have drawing skills. The famous wood engraver, Thomas Bewick had his inspiration from nature and he made engravings from animals. Nature provides a starting inspiration to most the engravers and they depict, flowers, birds, landscape and so on observing nature. Nature has different colors and variety of shades in it, and it immensely rich in beauty and grace. If an artistic engraver observes nature for a while, he can bring wonders on a wooden block. Nature consciously and subconsciously assist people in coming up with extraordinarily beautiful engraving images. Moreover, the engraver needs keen sight, movement of arms and thumb, dedication and passion towards wooden engraving. Radical Change s made by engravers in the Art When it comes to the issue of change in wood engraving art, the first person who comes in the mind is Thomas Buick, who brought radical change to the concept of wood engraving. It is he who brought major change to the wood engraving art and made it as a special and exquisite art piece. In early eighteenth century, Thomas made white line graving immensely popular and he also reproduced many drawings. However unnamed man in 1700 originally thought about using box wood cut section ally and across grain and cut grain by graver rather than knife. This graver made it possible to give a gradation of tone and various kinds of texture to the wood engraving work. Sooner the wood engravers were keenly interested in reproducing the painting and also in wash drawings. It was Timothy Cole and August Lepere debased the medium in various hundreds of cut and this came as an exclusively artistic piece of work Durer also have been doing wood cuts , but only for a certain duration of time and he gradually started relegating his work to other engraving artists. Also the Holbein's print is well known, but Lutzelburger engraved and printed all by himself. And recently the work of Sue Scallard is showing different aspect of wood engraving as she investigate with the different engraving tool to bring about various texture and patterns in engraving art. The popularity of wood engraving today Wood engraving in olden times was usually done to create images and pictures and also was used to make illustration for books and novels. In olden times, this was the only way to show people different pictures as no other printing method existed. But in this modern world, printing has taken a new dimension, with computer graph icing and usage of variety of other printmaking machines. People produce numerous graphics, images and multiple duplication with the help of computer, and arts like wood engraving and wood cut just remained as an antique form of art work. And also with the invention of digital printing the end product comes with great perfection and accuration. The main reason why the wood engraving has been forgotten by people is because; it is time consuming and also requires lot of craftsmanship. Today wood engraving is taken up by people mostly as a hobby, and also as an art work where the engraver can exhibit his artistic skills on wood. It has become an organic piece of art and people can be more creative working on wood as it is a thrilling experience. Now the people engraving wood are very rare but as an antique and ancient art it has high value in the art world. People after viewing art pieces in the museum, has been greatly motivated to make works in the similar form. It is now used to decorate a home, office or just to develop ones artistic side. Conclusion Wood engraving is a beautiful and antique art, with a compound of organic element in it. If an artist needs to be an engraver, he should imbibe a lot of craftsmanship and devotion for this art. This art requires lot of care and skill and a false cut, or slip of hand can destroy the work .An engraver while starting an engraving work, must ensure that all his tools and wood are of good quality. A dark marked wood or soft wood can spoil the appeal of the work .Actually, many kind of wood have been tested by engravers ,all along the evolution of this art, but pine and sycamore are the finest wood to be used. A careful judgment is to be practiced in selecting the wood and the wood most preferred are the ones which grow slowly. It is because of all the efforts need to be taken with this art, that more people are not indulge in engraving . The engravers in olden times ,were passionate about their work and spent lot of time in investigating and experimenting with different tools and wood involved in wood engraving. But at present times , the generation is less alert, patient and dedicated. A lot of time has to given by the artist to produce a masterpiece and now that it does not have commercial purpose, less and less people are taking this art very serious. In the Current age, wood engraving is done by high speed tools and by sophisticate methods ,but the glory of ancient engraved work cannot be matched by new ones in any way. References Chatto, W.A. (2005). A history of wood-engraving. Retrieved from http://www.antiquemapsandprint s.com/a-history-of-wood-engraving.htm Furner, J.W. (2010). A history of wood engraving. Retrieved from http://typocurious.com/a-history-of-wood-engraving/ Griffith, A. (1996). Prints and printmaking: an introduction to the history and techniques . California: The University of California Press. Westley, A. (2006). Woodcut. Retrieved from http://www.swanseaprintworkshop.org.uk/prin tmakingprocesses/w oodcut.htm Read More