PRINTING RELIEF TECHNIQUE, part 1                      

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DEFINITION

This technique is called relief printing because you cut the wood or linoleum around the drawing in order for the image to appear in relief (you save your drawing, get rid of the extra material around it, so it is also called ""taille-d'épargne" in French, from "'épargner" meaning saving and "taille" meaning cut). Only the relief will get the ink, like letter printing in Gutemberg time, or stamps.

Cutting the wood with a gouge	"a" letter engraved in mirror then printed on paper

FYI: The opposite technique is called intaglio or recess process and uses metal blocks engraved by acids (etchings, mezzotints) or cold chisels (dry point, engraving)

A linocut (more in galleries 1,  2, & 3)	An etching with aquatint (more, mixed with linocuts and woodcuts, on ivimarketplace.weebly.com)

CUTTING

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.

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.

• A woodcut lets see the natural grain of the wood once printed, and it is something you can play with when deciding how to draw your picture.
• A linocut has less texture because of the homogenous nature of the linoleum, but it gives more contrast between the blacks and the whites.
• A wood engraving uses the end grain of a block of wood -it gives you a very hard surface- so the cutting is more difficult, but you can have finer lines than in the two other relief printing techniques, and you will be able to do more copies of your image before the block is destroyed by the pressure.
   

A linocut (to buy an original and signed print in limited edition, click on the link )	A woodcut

Some gouges are in V to cut fine lines, others in U to cut larger chunk of wood. Some are like a knife, but  you can also use a Stanley knife, to cut precise angles or define the contour of your image Your tools have to be sharpened regularly with a sharpening stone and oil   Picture taken from "Printmaking" by H. Frankenfield

The surface of the blocks must be smooth if you want to be able to ink and print it entirely, so if you are using a piece of wood, you will have to sand it first using different grades of sandpaper.

You can use any kind of wood, and cut with whatever you think of, even if some woods or instruments are more common. Keep in mind that the softest the material, the easiest the cutting but, also, the roughest the result. If you are planning a very detailed picture with many fine lines, use a wood from a fruit tree or the end grain of a block, and allow plenty of time you will need it to do the cutting.

If you want to reproduce what can be seen in reality, you will have to cut using a mirror, or to use tracing paper to first draw your picture on the block.
 

PRINTING

Once you are done with your cutting, or think you are, it is time to print.. You will need a roller, some ink, a plate to spread the ink on it, a press, a wooden spoon or a baren, and some paper.
 

Put some ink on the plate, spread it using a roller until it is put evenly on the surface -and on your roller-, then roll your roller many times in every direction on your block. Put a sheet of paper on your block, press it, lift slowly a corner of your paper to see if the pressure has been sufficient to get the ink everywhere. If not, press again, then put the paper away when you are satisfied with the quality of the inking.

There are two types of ink: water based inks and oil based inks.

• Water based inks are easy to use because you can clean your materials with water, and some give a result nearly as good as oil based inks once dried. They also dry quicker than an oil based ink, but that can be a problem if you need a lot of time to complete your editions. If you are thinking to work with watercolor on your prints, the watercolors will also sometimes dissolve the ink.
• Oil based inks give the best color once dried, and you can work on your print with water once these prints are dried, but everything you used will need to be cleaned with turpentine or some kind of dissolving product, and you can be sure your hands will stay dirty for a while, even if you put gloves.
• When I want to have an idea of what my print will be, I use water based ink to do a quick printing by hand. When I am sure that my cutting is what I want, I use either a better quality water based ink, or an oil based ink for the final prints.

Page 2: Printing (2), Prints in color, Numbering