Macnab Instruction Book

It took awhile but I’ve posted all of the text from Iain Macnab’s book called The Student’s Book of Wood-Engraving published in 1938. I’ve included some wood engraving illustrations found in the book as well. Scottish artist Ian Macnab was the founder and principal of the famous Grosvenor School of Modern Art and was best [...]

Two JJ Lankes woodcuts

Here’s a couple of woodcuts by JJ Lankes. Even though they aren’t wood engravings, his work does have the feel of an engraving rather than plank grain work.

He was born in Buffalo, New York in 1884. In his youth he trained and worked as a draughtsman before going on to study art at the Art Student’s League of Buffalo and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Clare Leighton ~ Threshing ~ Wood Engraving

Clare Leighton ~ Bread Line, New York ~ wood engraving

Box of Box

As a happy consequence of a major reorganization of my woodworking shop I’ve collected all my boxwood scraps into one Rubbermaid container. They are not really cast-offs – naturally – but very useful to the block-maker. In fact, these bits could be looked upon as a kind of block-maker’s porn; very exciting stuff! I’ll be [...]

Paul Landacre on Wood Engraving

Paul Landacre is my wood engraving hero. Even more so now that I’ve come across this article he wrote on the subject in the early 1940′s for a book called The Relief Print Woodcut Wood Engraving & Linoleum Cut. For anyone interested in this subject you will be inspired by the following paragraphs! Wood Engraving [...]

New Virtual Booklet

I have added a new page flip booklet about wood engraving in my library. After a long absence I will be adding content that I hope is useful on this site while balancing my time in the studio. Hope you enjoy it. You can find it by clicking on this title; wood-engraving

History of Wood Engraving

Here is an article about wood engraving from 1844, reprinted along with illustrations from a sheet that I purchased at a very cool bookstore in Astoria, Oregon last November. Box is the wood mostly used by modern wood-engravers; pear-tree, and other wood of a similar grain and fibre, being now only used in executing large [...]

Book Cover Art

I was very pleased to accommodate poet Michael Eden Reynolds’ request for one of my linocuts as the cover art for his new collection of poems called Slant Room. The print that appealed to Michael most was a linoblock called Ornament. This was a cut I made after a wood engraving by Paul Nash, a [...]

Wood Engraving Books

I have a number of out of print, antiquarian books on the subject of wood engraving and other topics that I would like to make available online. Of course the problem is how to do it in a efficient and interesting way. As an experiment I’m offering John Farleigh’s 1954 book, Engraving on Wood in [...]

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