John Jānis Šteins

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Drypoint versus Woodcut

Can you tell me what the difference is between a print done in drypoint versus a woodcut?

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2 Comments

  1. John Steins January 4, 2011

    No similarity at all, other than that they are both printmaking processes.

    Woodcut involves making grooves and gouges in a piece of wood in order to develop the design where the surface is inked and printed to produce an edition.

    Drypoint is one of many techniques under the heading of intaglio. A drypoint tool is used to scratch the surface of the copper plate which throws up a microscopic bur. When printing ink is wiped on to the plate this bur catches enough ink so that it will print when passed through an etching press. The down side of this method of printmaking is that drypoints usually yield very small editions due to the fact that the pressure of the press will eventually flatten out those burs thereby reducing the quality of any subsequent prints.

    Some printmakers will electroplate the fragile drypoint with nickle in order to strengthen the surface for longer runs.

    I shouldn’t be hard to distinguish between a woodcut print and a drypoint.

  2. Rosey 2ooo January 4, 2011

    You can use the drypoint process on acrylic to make etchings and print onto wet watercolour paper.

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