How to make watermark woodcut prints?

If you want to make foggy, watery or wet prints, ordinary woodcuts can't show them, which needs to be borne by watermark woodcuts. This kind of woodcut print is different from other woodcuts and has special requirements in all aspects.

First, select the board.

To make watermark woodcut prints, several pieces of plywood with the same size are usually prepared according to the needs of color matching.

Basswood board has fine and uniform fibers and moderate wood hardness, so it is an ideal board for watermark woodcarving. At present, it is used as a carving board. The fly in the ointment is that the fiber is long and not suitable for carving fine pictures. If there are fine lines, pear slices can be embedded in the basswood board to make up for the deficiency.

Fraxinus mandshurica board or other board with clear texture can use its texture to enhance expressive force. For example, some watermark woodcuts use the natural texture of wood surface to print the flowing effect.

Second, the draft

The drawing method of watermark woodcut is basically the same as that of mimeographed color woodcut, but we should pay attention to the characteristics of watermark woodcut, and draw a draft directly on white paper with ink according to the idea, and fill in the color. When drafting, we should pursue the charm of ink painting and draw the expected effect of shade change. Charcoal, pencils, etc. Can be used to draw monochrome watermark woodcut sketch. When drafting watermark woodcut, the shape should be simple, the lines should be sparse and rough, not too thin. Because the watermark woodcut has strong ink permeability when rubbing, too dense lines will be blurred.

Third, the last edition

After the draft is completed, it can be printed in color separation. The process of color separation printing is basically the same as mimeographed woodcut. Because the watermark woodcut rubbing tool is simple, it can be partially rubbed on the plate. The previous edition should be adjusted to the main edition first, and then to the sub-edition. The structure and lines of the main engraving work, the volume and color of the secondary engraving image, etc. In practice, you can also flexibly grasp the relationship between the main page and the auxiliary page. If necessary, you can break the concept of home page and auxiliary page and mix the layout.

Fourth, sculpture

The engraving method of watermark woodcut is basically the same as that of mimeographed woodcut, but due to the different printing methods, we should pay attention to the following points when engraving:

1. Watermark woodcut in rubbing, the board will swell when it is wet, and the image will often become thicker. When carving, pay attention to carving slightly thinner.

2. Watermark woodcarving is generally deeper than mimeographed woodcarving, otherwise, shallow lines are easy to accumulate water and color when printing, which will confuse the picture.

3. You don't have to shovel the large blank bottom of the watermark woodcut, you just need to carve an interval of about 1 cm around the outline.

4. Watermark woodcut coloring tool is very small, which can be colored in a small area of the layout. Therefore, overprinting of various colors can be combined on one page or two pages, which not only saves printing plates, but also increases the accuracy of overprinting. Some large overprint colors, if you don't need to express the outline and knife method, you don't need to engrave, just draw the overprint position on the printing plate. Sometimes using this method to represent virtual objects such as clouds and distant mountains can get natural and moist effects.

Five, choose paper

Watermark woodcut paper requires strong water absorption, commonly used jade plate, folder, filter paper, paper and so on. When choosing Xuan paper, you should choose Yuxuan and Jiaxuan with white and dull paper, fine paper grain and uniform paper thickness. The pictures printed on this paper will have rich layering and moisture, and will not make the pictures gloomy. There are two kinds of filter paper: medical filter paper and industrial oil filter paper. The former is thin and thin, while the latter is thick and thick. Paper-based paper is a kind of paper used by printing houses to type by hand. There are many kinds of paper, so we should choose the one with finer texture and whiter color. These papers are well mastered and can achieve strong color effects.

In addition, there are other absorbent paper and handmade paper, which can be tried out. Some papers have a good friction effect.

Sixth, choose pigments.

Water-based pigments should be used in printing watermark woodcuts, such as traditional Chinese painting color, watercolor, gouache, calligraphy and painting ink, etc. Chinese painting and water are transparent in color and moist in effect. Water pink is strong, uniform and has strong coverage. If you want to print water pink transparently, you can make the pigment thinner and print a little less.

Generally, gouache black, watercolor black and painting ink are used for black. Calligraphy and painting ink is a mixture of watercolor and gouache pigments, which is not easy to penetrate and has a good Mo Yun.

Seven, take a bath

The difference between watermark woodcut rubbing and mimeograph lies in "mobilizing the enthusiasm of water". In the printing process, paper and plate should always maintain ideal humidity to ensure the normal rubbing.

Wet paper method includes wet clamping method and wet spraying method.

The humidifying method can humidify evenly, and can humidify multiple sheets of paper at a time, but it takes a long time, about several hours. Wet the paper the night before and use it the next morning. The specific method is: overlap a layer of wet newspaper with a layer of dry printing paper, and then press it with wooden boards. If the weather is dry, it needs to be covered with plastic film. This method is suitable for smaller pictures and multiple rubbings.

Tidal spraying method is suitable for current tidal use. The specific method is: spray the paper completely with a watering can or sprayer, and the finer and more uniform the sprayed water droplets, the better, forming a mist. The paper should be smooth and sprayed evenly, not wet or wet. After spraying water, wait for a short time, let the water slowly and evenly distribute to every part of the paper, and then start rubbing.

You also need to spray the printing plate evenly before printing.

The sequence of watermark woodcut rubbing operation is as follows:

1. Put the printing paper on the plate, align the mark and mark it.

2. Cover the wet newspaper on the printing paper, press it with paperweight, keep the humidity, and open the printing paper.

3. Double-sided printing paper, quickly lining a Zhang Qian newspaper on the printing paper and rubbing it with bamboo shoots, with even and moderate force. Usually, it takes two or three times to print a color, and rubbing it repeatedly until the color is printed on the screen.

4. After printing one edition, you can continue to work, put the second edition and the third edition, align the marks, color and print them respectively until the work is completed.

Watermark uses water-based pigments, and the chromaticity of water-based pigments will change when they are wet and dry, so coloring is too late. In particular, black must be printed. The method of thin color and multi-rhyme should be adopted, and too many rich colors should not be piled up on the plate at one time, so that the colors overflow and destroy the picture.

In the process of watermarking, we must always know the humidity of paper and board, and properly spray water and add moisture in the middle of rubbing. The paper that needs strong penetration is relatively wet, and the paper that doesn't need penetration is relatively dry.

After the work is finished, put it on a clean plate and clamp it to dry.