Wood Engraving

Wood Engraving

Wood engraving involves carving lines directly into the woodblock, rather than cutting the background to create raised relief lines, unlike woodcut.

Wood engraving, a relief-based printmaking technique, is typically executed on the end grain of boxwood, known for its exceptional hardness that allows for intricate detailing.

During the nineteenth century, it gained widespread popularity as a means of reproducing images in publications like books, newspapers, and journals, predating the development of photo-mechanical reproduction methods. Additionally, some artists, like Edward Calvert, occasionally used it as an original printmaking medium.


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Parra's studio, with Parra at the centre, his back to the camera as he works on the large painting takes centre stage, showing a faceless blue woman in a striped dress, painted in red, purple, blue and teal. The studio is full of brightly coloured paints, with a large window on the right and a patterned rug across the floor under the painting.