Woodcut is an engraving technique, whose name comes from the Greek terms xulon (wood) and graphé (writing). As its etymology says, it is the engraving that is made on the wood. The use of this technique is quite old, it was incorporated into the ornamentation of printed books even before the invention of the printing press. This graphic technique presents relief and hollow as its main modality. For its realization, you need wooden plates. It can be any well-cured wood, including laminates and chipboards.In general, hard woods (such as box, pear or cherry) are used more, the soft ones are docile to carving, but not very resistant for long runs.
The artist makes the drawing to be reproduced on the wood, and then he carves it following the lines of the design with an instrument called a burin or a gouge, leaving the parts to be printed in relief, and the intermediate spaces in a hollow. With different types of gouges, different textures are obtained in the image (a wide gouge produces a broader and coarser effect than a thin one). The lines that remain in relief are inked, later, when they are pressed, they are transferred to the paper in positive, thus being printed, and the intermediate spaces are left blank.This type of engraving gives harsh black and white contrasts, so it is not an appropriate technique for producing halftones, although when the artist is skilled enough, he can achieve very fine lines.
This procedure can be solved on wood cut longitudinally or parallel to the fibers of the tree trunk, and transversally or perpendicular to the fibers, thereby eliminating the grain of the wood, the first is known as engraving "to the thread" and the second as engraving "a la testa" (counter grain). This technique is native to the Far East, specifically China (6th century AD). It can be said that the Chinese and Japanese were the masters who taught the technique to Western artists. In fourteenth-century Europe, woodcut was used first to reproduce drawings on fabrics, and later to make playing cards, calendars, and religious prints.
In 1430 the first books printed by this procedure appeared, made in Holland and Germany. They were about the lives of saints, the art of dying well, astronomy, etc. The genre that obtained the most benefit was the "Bible of the poor", used in preaching and which, because it was addressed to the illiterate masses, gave great prominence to illustrations. The woodcut was abandoned and later replaced by the intaglio technique, due to the fact that the metal engraving had greater hardness. It is currently used only for artistic use.
