Woodcut

Description

A relief printing technique for printmaking in which knives and other tools are used to carve a design into the surface of a wooden block. The parts of the image meant to be printed are left level with the surface of the block. For printing, ink is rolled onto the surface, then transferred to paper or fabric by either rubbing (print laying above the inked surface of the block) or stamping (print laying below the inked surface of the block). For woodcuts, the block is cut along the wood grain (unlike wood engraving, where the block is cut in the end-grain).