Wood-Block Printing / A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice
E-text prepared by David Clarke, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/c/)
Transcriber's Note: Inconsistency in spelling and hyphenation is as in the original.
LONDON SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD. PARKER STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C.2 BATH, MELBOURNE, TORONTO, NEW YORK Printed by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd. Bath, England
In issuing these volumes of a series of Handbooks on the Artistic Crafts, it will be well to state what are our general aims.
In the first place, we wish to provide trustworthy text-books of workshop practice, from the points of view of experts who have critically examined the methods current in the shops, and putting aside vain survivals, are prepared to say what is good workmanship, and to set up a standard of quality in the crafts which are more especially associated with design. Secondly, in doing this, we hope to treat design itself as an essential part of good workmanship. During the last century most of the arts, save painting and sculpture of an academic kind, were little considered, and there was a tendency to look on design as a mere matter of appearance . Such ornamentation as there was was usually obtained by following in a mechanical way a drawing provided by an artist who often knew little of the technical processes involved in production. With the critical attention given to the crafts by Ruskin and Morris, it came to be seen that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper finish, and so on, far more than mere ornament, and indeed, that ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than a matter of merely abstract lines. Workmanship when separated by too wide a gulf from fresh thought—that is, from design—inevitably decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into affectation. Proper ornamentation may be defined as a language addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech of the tool.
F. Morley Fletcher
---
CONTENTS
APPENDIX
JAPANESE METHOD
General Description of the Operation of Printing from a Set of Blocks
Description of the Materials and Tools required for Block-cutting
Fig. 2.—Block mounted with cross ends to prevent warping.
1. THE KNIFE
Fig. 3.—Drawing of the knife.
2. CHISELS
Fig. 4.—Sizes of chisels.
3. MALLET
Fig. 5.—Short chisel in split handle.
Fig. 6.—Mallet.
Block Cutting and the Planning of Blocks
CUTTING
Plate V. Impression (nearly actual size) of a portion of a Japanese wood block showing great variety in the character of the lines and spots suggesting form.
Fig. 7.—Position of the hands in using the knife.
Fig. 8.—Another position of the hands in using the knife.
Plate VI. Reproduction of an impression (reduced) of the key-block of a Japanese print showing admirable variety in the means used to suggest form.
Fig. 11.—Method of holding gouge.
Fig. 12.—Clearing of wood between knife cuts.
Fig. 13.—Position of register marks.
Fig. 15.—Register marks (section of).
Fig. 16.—Section of colour-block. A. Colour mass. B. Depression. C. Surface of Plank.
ERRORS OF REGISTER
Plate VII. Impression of a portion of detail from a Japanese woodblock (very nearly actual size).
Fig. 17.—Drawing of sizing of paper.
INK
COLOUR
PASTE
Detailed Method of Printing
THE BAREN OR PRINTING PAD
TO RE-COVER A WORN BAREN WITH BAMBOO SHEATH
Fig. 19.—Method of re-covering baren.
BRUSHES
Fig. 20.—Drawing of brushes.
PRINTING
Fig. 21.—Manner of holding the paper.
Fig. 22.—Manner of using the baren.
PRINTING FROM COLOUR-BLOCKS
PRINTING OF GRADATIONS
OFFSETTING
DRYING OF PRINTS
Principles and Main Considerations in designing Wood-block Prints—Their Application to Modern Colour Printing
Co-operative Printing
Plate VIII.—An original Print designed and cut by the Author, printed by hand on Japanese paper.
Plate IX.—First printing. Key block. Black.
Plate X.—Second printing. Dull Red. Printed lightly at the top.
Plate XI.—Third printing. Deep Blue. Strong at the bottom, paler at the top.
Plate XIII.—Sixth printing. Indian Red. Gradation.
Plate XIV.—Seventh printing. Green. Printed flat.
Plate XV.—Eighth printing. Bluish green. Gradation.
Plate XVI.—Reproduction of a colour print by Hiroshigé.
Plate XVII.—Reproduction of a portion of the print shown on the preceding page, actual size, showing the treatment of the foliage and the expressive drawing of the tree trunk and stems.
Plate XVIII.—Reproduction of another portion of the print shown on page 111 (actual size), showing the expressive use of line in the drawing of the distant forms.
Plate XIX.—Reproduction of a colour print by Hiroshigé.
Plate XX.—Reproduction of a portion (actual size) of the print on the preceding page, showing treatment of tree forms and distance.
Plate XXI.—Reproduction of a colour print by Hiroshigé.
Plate XXII.—Reproduction of a portion (actual size) of the print on the preceding page, showing treatment of tree and blossom.
Plate XXIII.—The Tiger. Reproduction of a colour print by J. D. Batten.
Plate XXIV.—Lapwings. Reproduction of a colour print by A. W. Seaby.
now use the CAMBRIDGE COLOURS only, because
SOLE MAKERS
PENROSE'S