Driftwood

Edition 12 of 30, dated 1949

Woodcut or wood engraving is a relief technique in which an image is carved out of a block of wood, along the grain. The block is then inked and the fabric or paper is placed on top of the block and then rubbed with a buren – a disk shaped pad or run through the press. Some wood cut prints are black and white; if the artist intends to make a coloured print, a different matrix is cut for each colour to be included in the final print. Wood engraving is another relief technique, similar in most ways to the woodcut, but differing in that the artist carves the image into the end grain of the wood. Wood engraving allows for finer and multi directional cuts to be made as harder wood is usually used (ie. cherry).