Color woodcut - The lost cut
The method: The woodcut is the oldest known form of the printing block for high pressure. For the "real woodcut" longwood boards are used, boards that were sawn from the whole length of the tree trunk, stored dry for a long time and smooth planed. Different types
of wood are suitable, the most popular is probably the medium-hard pear wood. But I also had good experience with soft pine wood. The special thing about wooden printing blocks compared to linoleum is that the natural wood grain remains recognizable in the hand printing, makes it appear more lively and can even be included in the motif. The woodcut is basically best suited for the reproduction of a harsh, powerful expression. This applies to one-colour printing as well as multi-colour printing, even if the latter has
greater artistic freedom due to its color. To print in several colors, you either need several printing sticks or you use the method of the so-called "lost cut". This means that after printing one color, the same printstock is cut further for the next color, which is then reprinted on the same prints. It must be clear that what has been cut away for further pressure is lost. And you determine the number of prints in advance, so usually suitable for small runs in the hand printing process. The colors usually print from light to dark. In multi-coloured printing technology with several printing sticks or split pressure stocks, there are two dangerous cliffs. On the one hand, the sharply limited surfaces, shapes and lines cannot be easily combined with the individual colours in combination. The coloured leaf seems to fall apart in its individual components. In order to avoid this effect, it is possible to consciously contrast the individual colours as independent form carriers (see e.g. in the Expressionists, but the exact repetition of the form severely restricts artistic freedom ("copy"). By restricting it to one stock,
i.e. the technique of lost cut, as Picasso has ingeniously applied in the linocut from 1959 to 1960, one can prevent the decay of the image effect into the individual colors and at the same time avoid the mere copying of forms.
The template (e.B. drawing, ink lavender) is transferred to the printing stock (drawing/pause/painting). The areas
that should not be printed are cut away, either by means of sharp knives (cut and counter-cut) or, more simply, exclusively with smaller and larger hollow irons.
The color: It is applied thinly for each print with paint roller or bale. This is typically an oil-based
letterpress or offset printing ink, which is set for transmission e.g. by means of ink roller tough and film-breaking. Water-based paints are not suitable with wood. To obtain harmonious prints, related colors, e.g. should be used from one or two common basic tones. Since I like a painterly image printout, I set the colors transparent to semi-transparent and allow small complementary contrasts.
The paper: Although almost all papers would be suitable, satisfactory results are more likely to be expected on well-absorbent, weakly sized papers. For the hand-drawn print, I prefer medium sized handmade papers, especially Japanese papers or light hand-made papers.
Printing: Hand presses, which are indispensable for copper printing or for lithography, can occasionally be dispensed with printing woodcuts, especially if one wants to produce original graphics in a small edition and want to consciously incorporate small differences in the sense of artistic freedom by hand-printing. The rubbing is done by means of folding leg, wiper or hand roller, depending on the desired expression form, which can be easily varied especially in hand-printing.