Hand-coloured
Woodcut
Though
graphic art by its very nature, with its
emphasis on drawing, is largely and most
expressively an art of black and white,
the tradition of coloured prints is as
old as printmaking itself.
The
earliest woodcuts, holy images and playing
cards, were all hand-coloured (the image
printed in black and then hand coloured
up) with water-based pigments. It was only
at the close of the 15th century that black
and white in its own right and without
colour applied, became the norm for prints.
Hand
colouring employs pigment mixed with water,
either opaque body-colour or more translucent
washes. In early prints stencils were generally
used for speed of repetition. The colour
range, quite bright and intense, comprised
red, brown, yellow and green. Blue, a very
expensive colour, was much more rarely
used for colouring old prints.
After
the 15th century hand-colouring was generally
abandoned and artists devised various ways
of printing in colours (using oil-based
coloured inks for printing the image).
|
Edward
Gordon Craig (1872–1966)
"Portrait of Alexandre Dumas,
père".
Hand-coloured woodcut, 1902, on
olive grey paper.
( 73 x 72 mm) |
|
However,
in the 20th century the interest in more
primitive prints, both incunabula and folk
art, led a few artists to experiment again
with hand-colouring and pochoir (stencil)
on their woodcuts, Charles Ginner being
the most well-known British example. |
