Wood engraving

Wood engraving is a relief printmaking process in which an engraver cuts lines into the end grain of a wood block. Ink adheres to the raised surface and transfers to paper under pressure.

Wood engraving tool: A burin is a steel engraving tool with a sharp tip used to cut lines into a printing block. The burin removes the block’s surface to form the image’s light lines.
Woodcut: Woodcut is a relief printmaking process in which an image is cut into the side grain of a wood block. Wood engraving uses end grain and finer cutting tools, while woodcut generally cuts side grain.
Thomas Bewick: Thomas Bewick was an English artist and engraver who helped establish modern wood engraving in the late eighteenth century. His technical refinements and animal illustrations made the medium widely influential.
Book illustration: Book illustration is the use of images to accompany or explain a book’s text. Wood engraving reproduced detailed images directly alongside letterpress text.
Relief print: A relief print is an image made by inking raised areas of a surface and pressing them onto a substrate. Wood engraving is one specific relief-print process.
End grain: End grain is wood seen across the cut ends of its fibers. Its dense, hard surface supports the small, controlled cuts that distinguish wood engraving.
Copper engraving: Copper engraving is an intaglio process in which lines are cut into a copper plate and hold ink for printing. Its recessed lines print ink, unlike the raised surface used in wood engraving.
The General History of Quadrupeds: The General History of Quadrupeds is Thomas Bewick’s 1790 illustrated book on four-footed animals. Bewick’s wood-engraved illustrations demonstrated the medium’s range in book publishing.
Newspaper illustration: Newspaper illustration is the use of printed images to depict events, people, or ideas in newspapers. Engraved blocks could be printed with type in the same press run.
Burin: A burin is a steel tool with a shaped cutting tip used to incise lines in a hard surface. Its controlled cuts make the fine marks characteristic of wood engraving.

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