woodcuts-lnks – 2/2/04
A set of web links to information on period woodcuts by Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon.
NOTE: See also the files: woodcuts-msg, paper-msg, bookbinding-msg, wood-msg, merch-woods-msg, tools-msg, woodworking-msg.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Lis <liontamr at ptd.net>
Date: Wed Jan 14, 2004 1:17:44 PM US/Central
To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>,
Subject: Links: Woodcuts
Greetings everyone! This week's Links list is about Woodcuts--from initial
idea to printing your illustration. Please make use of the following 15
links to discover the Medieval world of printable art. Included are samples
of Medieval Woodcuts (many thanks to Master Huen for his invaluable Gode
Cokery website AGAIN). Also, Special Thanks to Master Remus Fletcher for
suggesting this week's topic.
As always, please forward this list on to those who will find it
interesting, and use it to update your own web pages.
Stay warm on this blustery and cold January day!
Cheers
Aoife
Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
Riverouge
Aethelmearc
Gode Cokery: Medieval Woodcuts Clipart Collection
http://www.godecookery.com/clipart/clart.htm
A collection of Medeival artwork and woodcuts, espescially about food but
also many other topics, that about.com calls "fairly robust." Nice work,
Huen :)
Retrokat.com Medieval Clipart
http://www.retrokat.com/medieval/si.htm
Note that this site prohibits live-links to it's artwork.
Medieval Woodcut Illustrations: City Views and Decorations from the
Nuremberg Chronicle (A book for sale)
http://store.yahoo.com/doverpublications/0486404587.html
(Site Excerpt) Comparable to the Gutenberg Bible in its magnificent
craftsmanship, The Nuremberg Chronicle, a 1493 history of the world,
contains some of the most beautiful woodcuts ever designed. This splendid
selection depicts 91 locales-Athens, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Jerusalem, Venice,
Prague, Munich, Nuremberg, Florence, and many others, plus 143 illustrations
of figures and decorative objects. Designed by a team of artists headed by
Pleydenwurff and Wolgemut that included apprentice Albrecht DŸrer. 194
permission-free b/w illustrations.
Woodcuts (history)
http://www2.mmlc.nwu.edu/c303/levavy/woodcuts.html
(Site Excerpt) Because of the difficult nature of cutting the wood itself,
Renaissance artists' designs were often less intricate than they might have
been. This is why once etching and engraving became more common practices,
woodcutting was abandoned in favor of the media which could render more
delicate line. The correlation between artist and carver became so strong
that artists would have to take into account the skill and expectations of
his carver while creating the design.2 However, wood engraving remained in
the 16th century to be the primary form of book publication, preventing a
total move from woodcuts to engravings. Artists continued to utilize the
durability of woodblocks in creating decorative designs intended to rival
the decorative styles of manuscript illumination.
Jean's Printmaking Home Page
(Site Excerpt--note that this site has a flash movie showing the delicate
carving motion on a woodcut) How to make a woodcut:Getting Started You
will need:1/2 inch thick piece of wood, about 8 in. by 10 in. preferably
pine or birch plywood. You can use linoleum, if you wish, but it is best to
buy the stuff specially made for art work, called battleship
linoleum.Woodcutting tools or linoleum cutting tools.... Safety Rule!...A
woodcutting knife is a tool, not a weapon. Use your woodcutting knives with
care and keep them sharp by sharpening them on a stone which you can buy in
any hardware store. Watch the position of the woodcutting knife relative to
how you are holding your hands. You don't want to cut towards your other
hand. That is why this woodcut lesson is not suggested for children under
the sixth grade.....
Relief Printing Techniques
http://www.geocities.com/lecomtedominique/techan.html
(Site Excerpt) Because you have to remove a lot of material from your block,
these techniques can only be used with "soft" materials like wood or
linoleum, sometimes gerflex or PVC, rarely stone. So Woodcut, Linocut and
Wood engraving are the 3 main kinds of relief printing techniques. In each
one, you draw your subject on the surface of a block and cut away every bit
of material that is not the picture, using special instrument called gouges
or knifes.
Woodcuts, Wood Engravings
http://www.gis.net/~scatt/woodcuts/woodcut_novels.html
(Site Excerpt--please note that due to the subject matter on the woodcuts
shown at the end of the page, it is not suitable for children) Technically,
the woodcut requires not only a knowledge of drawing but skill in a distinct
kind of craftsmanship. Much more than "hacking" at the wood is necessary.
Clarity in design and expression in both line and area are most important.
The woodcut is done on soft wood, the long-grain plank of apple, pear,
beech, cherry - and also linoleum. All woods used are type high, planed flat
and sandpapered very smooth. The design is either drawn directly or traced
upon the block, and the method, roughly is is to cut away all white or light
areas, leaving the black lines and areas raised, as that, when inked, they
will print on paper under pressure. A knife or carver is used for incising
the line and chisels or similar tools are used to clean out superfluous
wood.
Wood-Block Printing
F. Morley Fletcher
1916
http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/011_03/preface.html
(Site Excerpt)
This little book gives an account of one of the primitive crafts, in the
practice of which only the simplest tools and materials are used. Their
method of use may serve as a means of expression for artist-craftsmen, or
may be studied in preparation for, or as a guide towards, more elaborate
work in printing, of which the main principles may be seen most clearly in
their application in the primitive craft.
Printing Woodcuts on an Etching Press
http://www.neilwoodall.com/wood-etch/wood-etch.html
Deutsches-Museum Printing
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstell/dauer/druck/e_druck.htm
(Site Excerpt) Between about 1440 and 1450, Johannes Gensfleisch Gutenberg
invented letterpress printing, a method of duplicating large numbers of
identical prints at low cost. This was the technical prerequisite which made
books accessible to a larger audience, accounted for the rise of newspapers
and periodicals, and generally brought about a much wider dissemination of
the written word than ever before. Hardly any other invention has exercised
such a great influence on civilization and society. The Department of
Printing is divided up into three areas: Handicrafts, industry and the
Modern Age.
THE WORLD OF THE RENAISSANCE PRINT SHOP
by Merry Wiesner-Hanks
Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/incunab/incmwh.htm
(Site Excerpt) The amounts printed were absolutely fantastic compared with
medieval production. Scholars estimate--and this is a very hard thing to
agree on -- that there were somewhere between 8 million and 20 million
incunables, or books printed before 1500. This, of course, vastly exceeds
the number of books produced in all of western history up to that point.
Works on Paper - Woodcut
http://www.noteaccess.com/MATERIALS/Woodcut.htm
(Site Excerpt) The block for a woodcut can be cut from the log either
lengthwise, along the grain, or crosswise, across the grain, each method
producing a slightly different look in the final print. Virtually any kind
of wood that can be cut is suitable. In his bird's eye view of Venice,
printed in 1500, Jacopo da Barbari used six walnut blocks. Albrecht DŸrer
used pearwood, and Gauguin used boxwood. Early woodcut artists preferred a
close grain which made it possible to cut very fines lines. In the past
hundred years, artists have often used wood with a coarser grain,
incorporating its natural pattern into their prints. Some modern artists use
plywood. In this century, linoleum has been a frequent alternative to wood.
The blocks are cut with straight knives or scooped ones called gouges. In
recent years some artists have begun to use power tools.
About.com's William Caxton c. 1421-1491
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/caxton/index.htm
(Site Excerpt) From textiles to printing, this English printer produced the
first printed book in English to make extensive use of woodcuts. Learn more
from these profiles and biographies.
RTF from Florilegium.org on Woodcuts
http://www.florilegium.org/files/SCRIBAL-ARTS/woodcuts-msg.rtf See also
http://www.florilegium.org/ crafts for the woodworking tools and techniques
section.
Print-making TIME-TABLE
http://www.xs4all.nl/~knops/timetab.html
(Site Excerpt) 868PAPER The first book printed on paper in China, in block
printed Buddhist scripts.
896COLOPHON Colophon, oldest known manuscript colophon, in Books of the
Prophets written by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias.
896MOSES BEN ASHER Colophon, oldest known manuscript colophon, in Books of
the Prophets written by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias.
950WINCHESTERWinchester School, 950-1100, characteristic style of manuscript
illumination
954ABINGDON Abingdon Monastery founded by Aethelwold, monks famous for
manuscript illumination, Winchester School
1041MOVABLE TYPE In 1403 the earliest known book was printed from movable
type in Korea, a process which had been used by the Chinese as early as
1041. In 1450 Gutenberg printed his 42-line Bible in Mainz on a quality of
handmade paper which remains unsurpassed to this day. 26 Years later William
Caxton brought the art of printing to England, and in 1486 the first English
coloured illustrated book was printed in St. Albans.
Artlex on Woodcuts
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/wxyz/woodcut.html
(Site Excerpt--numerous photos of examples) France, Troyes, Dance of Death,
16th century, incunabulum, illustrated with hand-colored woodcuts, Saxon
State Library, Dresden, Germany. Based on a fourteenth-century morality poem
by an unidentifiable author, the Dance of Death evolved into a set of
illustrated verses depicting a dialogue between Death and people of all
social ranks. The theme was very popular in 15th and 16th century Christian
Europe, reminding the living that rank and station in life were meaningless
in the face of death. The illustrations show representations of
ecclesiastical and secular society being carried off by Death. The pages
displayed here show the Pope, the Emperor, a cardinal, and a king. See
vanitas.
RTF from Florilegium.org on Woodcuts
http://www.florilegium.org/files/SCRIBAL-ARTS/woodcuts-msg.rtf See also
http://www.florilegium.org/ crafts for the woodworking tools and techniques
section.
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