Block printing has always been regarded as a typical example of relief printing, but wood boards, especially modern wood boards, are not only the best plates for relief printing, but also affordable plates for gravure printing, comprehensive printing and air pressure printing. At present, the "rubbing" applied by many printmakers in China is actually the comprehensive application of the convex and concave surfaces of woodcut: the wood grain watermark is also an example of the combination of convex and concave surfaces (there is more ink accumulated in the concave areas of the wood grain, but less ink accumulated in the grain areas, thus showing the wood grain). At present, people use various paints (such as varnish, wax, plastic, etc.). ) Brush on the wood surface to make it move freely, eliminate the obstacles of artistic patterns, and have the effect of metal intaglio: they also use the smoothness and cheapness of wooden boards (various plywood) as the bottom plate of comprehensive boards and newspaper clippings, and so on. With the progress of science and technology and people's continuous exploration, wood will have a broader prospect as a plate.
In this section, the general use of wooden boards as plates is described as follows.
1. Tools and materials
Woodcutting tools and materials, like other kinds of plates such as paper plates, are composed of plates, carving tools and printing tools.
A. plates:
Any flat cardboard that can be fed into the knife can be used. Especially modern woodcut, there is nothing to pay attention to. Different materials and textures will have different artistic effects, so it is very important to use them properly. Generally, the texture of the plate is selected according to whether the content is coarse ore or fine ore. If the white peach, plum, ginkgo (ginkgo tree) and other wood are relatively compact and thin, it can be used to carve exquisite prints. Forged wood in the north, camphor wood and maple wood in the south are also good woodcut plates. But now, because these boards are becoming more and more difficult to get (except some authors in the wood producing area), people try to find other boards and their substitutes to make woodcuts. Three clips, five splints, sawdust boards and the like can be bought everywhere in the city and are adopted by most woodcut writers. Inocut, plastic version, plaster version, etc. What is popular abroad is essentially a substitute for woodcut.
B. Carving tools:
A box of artistic woodcut carving knives (figure 16 1, 162). There are several boxed woodcut carving knives on the market now. For beginners, eight packs are enough. When buying a woodcut knife in an art store, you'd better choose one with a big flat mouth and a big round mouth in the box. If not, you can buy a medium-sized flat chisel (with a flat and thin blade) in a shop or booth selling iron products in the market to carve large prints and shovel the bottom. Woodcarving knives usually include triangular knives, round knives, flat knives, oblique knives and square knives. The characteristics and uses of various tools are briefly described as follows:
The names of the parts of the meat cutter are divided into: blade, blade surface, shaft and handle. (See Figure 163)
The correct way to hold the knife is to hold the knife in the right hand, and the middle finger and forefinger of the left hand touch the knife shaft to control the direction and speed of the knife, so it is not easy to hurt the fingers. (Figure 164)
Mitsubishi knife, the sharp angle of the blade goes into the wood, and it is pushed forward vigorously, which is used for carving: it can also be used as a flat-edged knife; It can also be carved with a wave shovel, and the knife entrance and knife exit are short lines with sharp ends, or chisel, that is, after the knife enters the wood, the knife is retracted to pick up sawdust and carve triangular white spots. (Figure 165)
Round knife, mainly used for carving large surfaces. There are four general carving methods: shovel, knife in and out of the place is circular arc; The second is digging, that is, stopping after the knife enters the wood and cutting off the sawdust with the knife, or cutting off the sawdust with the hand after the knife retreats. The two ends of this knife shape are a circle on each side; Third, the horizontal knife cuts the line. When holding a knife, don't push it forward, but push the knife to the right when the middle finger and forefinger of the left hand reach the shaft of the knife. At the same time, you can hold the right hand of the knife and press the edge on the wood surface to cut soft lines. The fourth is shaking the knife, the handle is slightly vertical, and the knife is moved forward left and right, and the lines carved are like ropes. (Numbers 165, 166- 1)
Flat knife (also called flat knife): This kind of knife is like a carpenter's flat chisel, but the flat chisel used for carpentry is thick and suitable for hammering, while the wood carving flat knife is thin and suitable for manual feed. At present, many woodcarvers often use mallets when chiseling a wood plate with a carpenter's flat chisel, which is better than that of Gu Zhuo. There are generally five carving methods: one is shovel, and the knife touch is square; The second kind is digging, pushing the wood flat, and then removing the knife to pick up sawdust; Third, use a sharp line, such as a plow, and then stick the blade surface on the wood surface to cut off the sawdust from the plow, or add another knife to the other side of the scribe line in the same way. The two knives were clamped together like Mitsubishi knives, and the sawdust was dug away. Fourth, cut, straighten it slightly with a knife, thrust it into the wood, and carve lines and shapes in turn, just like carving stones. At this time, the left hand should hold the knife with a fist and the right hand should knock with a mallet (see Figure 166-4). Fifthly, chisel lines and insert them vertically, and connect them into long lines with straight edge marks, such as "broken ulna" and "leakage marks" (Figure 165, 166-3).
Oblique knife (also known as oblique knife): generally, it is mainly used for carving lines or as an auxiliary knife for other knives. There are two ways to draw lines: one is to draw lines slightly perpendicular to the tip of the knife; The second is to flatten the scribing with the front corner, such as plowing, just like a flat knife. The difference is that the oblique cutter is easier to control than the flat cutter.
Square knife (also called square knife): It is a new product recently. Set Mitsubishi knife, round knife and flat knife in one. It is very convenient if used properly.
The use of carving knives is generally the same, but in specific carving, it will vary from person to person. According to the author's different preferences, the emphasis is on knives. Some woodcarvers mainly use round knives, while others are used to using flat knives and oblique knives; Some of them are mainly Mitsubishi knives, and they are very finely carved. Generally speaking, a woodcut knife should not be too miscellaneous, such as Mitsubishi, round mouth and late flat mouth, so that the knife will be messy and uncoordinated. A tune has a theme, a painting has a theme, and a woodcut also needs a master knife. Woodblock carving was once called the art of carving knives, which is what it means.
In addition to the above carving knives, you can also prepare some nails, knives, shavings, saws, scissors, electric soldering irons, etc. Used to make various layout textures. (Numbers 16 1, 162)
About sharpening the knife: as the saying goes, "sharpening the knife does not mistake the woodcutter." It will become dull after a long time. If it's dull, it needs sharpening. If you don't sharpen your point, you will delay your work and affect your mood in carving. Mills include: oilstone, emery and millstone bricks. Flat mouth and oblique mouth are easier to grind, so pay attention to the flatness of the blade surface when grinding. Mitsubishi and round knives are more difficult to grind. When the two cutting surfaces of Mitsubishi knife are ground separately, the force and times should be average. The round edge surface needs to roll back and forth on the grinding stone, or dig a round groove on the grinding brick and grind it back and forth. Whether each blade is sharp depends on whether there are bright lines reflecting light on the blade. If not, it means that the blade is sharpened quickly.
Preservation of cutter: If the cutter is not used temporarily after use, in order to prevent rust, you can put some oil or vegetable oil on the cutter head.
C. printing tools
Block printing can be divided into watermark and mimeograph, and the tool materials used by them are also slightly different. Compare the following lists:
mimeograph
Printing paper can be white paper or colored paper that can be bought in the market, but it is suitable for those with solid surfaces, such as drawing paper, drawing paper, cardboard and coated paper. You can also use rice paper or absorbent paper to mimeograph, and the printed matter is not reflective.
The most convenient cleaning tools are wooden handles and general metal spoons, but Ma Lian is required for large-area overprinter (see manufacturing method). It is very desirable and interesting to take a piece of hardwood and make your own cleaning tools with different grinding surfaces. (see figure 16 1)
Ink application tools-① There are several sizes of rubber rollers. Small rollers for printmaking are hard to buy in the market. Photographic equipment stores have rollers for grinding, but they are too hard. It's better to go to a stationery store to buy a reputation printing roller, cut it into three sections, and make a homemade roller, which is ideal. (2) Adjust the size of the ink shovel. ③ One or several small glass plates for ink mixing.
Pigments are mainly black and white offset printing ink for printing, supplemented by various oil painting pigments. However, before using oil painting pigments, the color oil in the pigments must be absorbed by coarse paper (or other coarse paper) before being mixed with offset printing Bai Mo or color oil (velvet oil or butter) for printing. If oil painting pigments are used directly, it is not easy to get paper because of insufficient viscosity, and heavy oil stains seep out of the body after printing, which affects the printmaking effect.
Other l-shaped positioning square (made of wood strips).
watermark
When printing paper, insert Xuan paper (it is easy to control moisture by repeatedly pulling paper) and other paper with good water absorption, such as filter paper.
Wipe with a horse or brown rake. (See below for the production method)
Ink tools ① Brush, tint pen, brush, gouache or oil painting pen vary in size. (2) Color matching and several small white porcelain plates.
Pigment can be watercolor, gouache and traditional Chinese painting.
Others: watering can, paperweight (iron, porcelain or hardwood can be used).
The production method of Malian is composed of bamboo shoot skin, rope reel and round plate.
Soak the dried bamboo shoots in water to soften them, spread them flat and dry them, cut them into eleven pieces according to the figure, saw the three plywood into a circle (the size depends on the bamboo shoots), and tightly coil them into a circle with a strong cotton rope or brown rope (the rope is about 3-4 mm thick), which is just the same size as the three plywood. In order to prevent the rope reel from loosening, it can be sealed with transparent tape in a cross shape (see figure), and then the round plate and the rope reel can be glued firmly with white glue. When it is dry, tear off the adhesive tape, spread yellow wax all over the surface, and put it into the bamboo shoot skin (note: the skin of the bamboo shoot skin has fine hairs, inward and smooth outside), as shown in the figure, wrap the rope board tightly, and finally tie the two ends of the bamboo shoot skin tightly with a rope to make the handle. Made in Ma Lian (see figure 167). Note: In the 1940s, Mr. Shi Yan, a contemporary art historian, verified that horses were introduced to Japan from China through Korea, and then they were slightly improved to become modern people. Ma Xiang, known as Ba and Bi in Japanese and China (the woodcut cleaner Ma Xiang used before was a brush made of horse mane. In ancient times, it was also homophonic. Therefore, Ma Lian originated in China.
Brown harrow is the appearance of traditional cleaning tools in China, which is composed of brown pieces and square wood strips. Take a square block of wood about one hand long and 4-5 cm thick (hardwood at the top) and cut a groove in the center of the spine with a round chisel. First, fold the brown sheet into the width of the batten along the brown silk, then wrap it tightly with kraft paper (or other strong paper), trim and tighten the two ends of the brown roll (the length is just enough to wrap the two ends of the batten), press it under the batten, and tie the ropes at both ends in the grooves on the back of the batten. Finally, tear up the brown roll. (Figure 168)
Drum production: cut the drum for prestige printing in half according to the ratio of 1/2, 1/3 and 1/ 6, drill holes on both sides of the wood core, and match it with iron wire frames with handles. (See Figure 107)