Rick, is this a "Woodcut"?

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

Rick is correct. The design was cut by hand (or hand held tools) into a block of wood and that block of wood was used to print the images. Cutting into wood is difficult (wood is physically hard, after all) and it could take up to two weeks to make a large wood block. This was before computer scanners and half tone 'dots' printing. All magazine picture printing plates were done by hand.

Woodcut prints have been made centuries. Probably the most famous and technically gifted woodcut printer was the 15th/16th century German artist Albrecht Durer, and you can see a lot of his art online. Modern artists like Picasso and Salvador Dali also made woodcuts.

The difference between a woodcut and a wood-engraving is the way the designs were cut into the wood. Wood-engraving used a harder wood and different tools to create finer more detailed designs. This is not something the collector has to memorize, as a wood-engraving is a type of woodcut and can be and often is called a woodcut.

One of the hallmarks of woodcut printing is, due to the grain and eneveness of the wood, you can't make large areas of solid ink. You'll notice in the above print, there are no large areas of solid ink. Even the dark areas have fine lines put in by the craftsman. Without these lines, the grain and unevenness of the wood appear in dark areas. Some modern artists like the wood grain and leave it in.