the.com/woodcut
a knife wins by removing everything that isn't the picture.
means A woodcut is a print made by carving an image into a block of wood, inking the raised surface that remains, and pressing it onto paper.
from A plain compound of "wood" and "cut" — Old English "wudu" for the tree-stuff and "cuttan" for the slicing, joined to name exactly what the technique is: wood that has been cut. The word arrived in English alongside the craft itself, which spread through Europe with the rise of printing, when carved blocks could stamp the same image again and again. Its close relative "woodcarving" keeps the verb; the woodcut keeps the result.
- oldest print
- predates Gutenberg by centuries in China
- reverse logic
- carve away what stays white, ink the rest
- durer flex
- made woodcuts look impossibly detailed, like engravings
- grain matters
- cut across the wood for fine lines
- hokusai's wave
- famous blue masterpiece is a woodblock print
for instance
hokusai's great wave — japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print from 1830-1832 series 'thirty-six views of mount fuji'