Making Woodcuts and Wood Engravings by Hans Alexander Mueller

Author:Hans Alexander Mueller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486139937
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

But apart from this danger, the use of this consciously prepared tool gives a new form of expression to the graphic arts: a wood cut rooted entirely in a technical tradition, free from any echo of the other forms so richly at the disposal of the creative artist.

With the use of this multiple liner, engraving becomes almost superfluous. It is more like painting with a metal brush a few tenths of a millimeter into the hard polished surface of the boxwood block. The greater the pressure (that is, the deeper this sharp “brush-graver” goes into the wood), the lighter the line will appear in the print. During the work, the eye is concentrated on the direction of the tool, not on the trail it leaves behind it, which can only be seen in detail through a magnifying glass. The hand must feel its way, allowing the graver to cut more or less into the wood; and only that hand dare attempt it which, through long experience with wood, can depend on its own accuracy.

It is not necessary to use a magnifying glass; for the time being it is enough for the eye to take in the total impression of the marks left by the multiple liner. The organization of the area into groups of varying tonal values has been determined by the choice of the graver. But the darkening of the surface is still a prerequisite. Without it, not only would there be a great strain on the eyes, but it would be impossible to see where the wood had been engraved and where not. The effect would be the same as if someone were to write with white chalk on a white wall.

Every style-conscious artist will soon discover that only with the greatest caution can the multiple liner be used in combination with ordinary burins in one and the same engraving. Its accurate parallels seem painfully stiff and lifeless in contrast to the more flexible lines drawn with the one-track graver.

A mixture of these two techniques will generally cause some feeling of displeasure to the initiated observer. But there are a few cases where the multiple-line technique can be deliberately introduced into, and harmonized with, the single-track technique; namely, when the beginning and end of each line in the multiple liner group is taken up and continued, line for line, with the burin, and led from its mechanical sterility back to the easy flexibility of the other lines. Of course, the skillful and sensitive artist can override all such warnings and still be justified in the light of his particular artistic purpose (e.g., Lynd Ward). There is no greater delight and satisfaction to be found than in successfully overthrowing established doctrines and producing something on one’s own account.

Used alone, and with rich technical imagination, the multiple liner, with all the subtlety of its gradations, can produce such an enchantment of tone-painting that the dangers of the technique become negligible, and he who sees a print made in this manner can no longer tell how it was made.

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