Woodcut Art Technique

It is one of the oldest methods of making prints from a relief surface having been used in china to decorate textiles since the 5th century ce.

Woodcut art technique.

Printers carve images into a block of wood. Any areas that would show white are cut away along the grain of the wood. 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. By the 16th century it had achieved the status of an important art form in the work of albrecht dürer and other northern european artists.

Woodcut the oldest technique used in fine art printmaking is a form of relief printing. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. The raised areas that remain after the block has been cut are inked and printed while the recessed areas that are cut away do not retain ink and will remain blank in the final print. The woodcut is a technique of relief printing in which the artist cuts away from the surface of a polished block of wood.

Woodcut technique of printing designs from planks of wood incised parallel to the vertical axis of the wood s grain. Arriving in europe around 1400 it was originally used for stamping designs onto fabrics textiles or playing cards. The artist s design or drawing is made on a piece of wood usually beechwood and the untouched areas are then cut away with gouges leaving the raised image which is then inked.