Wood Engraving
Welcome to the wood engraving section of my gallery. Stylistically it may appear as if I’m all over the map, riding my engraving burin like an out of control rodeo rider (not to endorse rodeos, of course). I won’t be pigeonholed either.
Wood engraving was advanced to new heights by Thomas Bewick in the 1700′s as a method of illustration for newspapers and periodicals. The fine detail of those early wood engravings was achieved because of his skill and the quality of the boxwood block which was engraved upon the polished end grain surface rather than the plank grain as in a woodblock or woodcut.
In the early twentieth century wood engraving was adopted as a means of personal expression moving the form far away from the gangs of work a day engravers churning out blocks for magazine and newspaper illustration.
Please click on thumbnails or use the drop-down menu above.
Wow these are great! Were they all hand engraved or did you use a CNC machine engraver? I’m a graphic designer more of computer and digital media, have not done any engraving. I was thinking of getting a cnc wood engraver a small one. Then I could create the art on the computer and send it to the engraver to engrave it on wood, metal, plastic and things of that nature. I saw a small cnc engraver I think it was on visionengravers.com, I just was wondering if that is how most people do the engraving now a days. or if artist are still doing it by hand. and also if there is a market for using a cnc engraver to engrave the art.
Thanks
Mark
Thanks Mark. All of my engravings are done by hand using engraving tools, the old fashioned way, ha ha.
I think there are artists who use CNC machines to carve on a wood surface and then go through the motions of hand printing. But for me, that defeats the purpose of printmaking since most of the enjoyment is the actual tactile experience of cutting away the wood, lino or whatever you are working with.
It’s also a display of manual dexterity and skill as in ‘hand to eye’ coordination.
That’s not to say there is no place for CNC generated wood blocks for making prints. An artist should be allowed to use whatever tools and assets are available to make art the way they want to make it.
Wow Im looking at some of your engravings, it’s pretty awsome. The detail is beautiful. How many hours do you spend on them? I think I’ll try makeing some by hand first rather then just buy the VE-810 from vision engravers. Although I’m not sure I have the hand dexterity that is needed. Is it anything like drawing or painting?
My favorite one is ELIZA looks like a lot of work went into it.
Lol! they all look like a lot of work went into them..
Eliza is one of my favorites as well. I was lucky not to make any mistakes on it.
Basically, you prepare an end grain block – in the case of wood engraving – and you draw your design on the surface and start cutting away the parts that you don’t want to print.
It’s probably a good idea to practice on some smaller pieces to get the hang of it. At least then you’ll have an idea of doing it by hand and maybe it’ll appeal to you.
The Eliza print took a couple of weeks of off and on work. Not sure of the exact hours.
I love Copper Joe;so wise just like me. Thanks Again