186
DAVID H. S. CHAU
of different sizes had then to be made in order to produce different colours in colour picture printing. Whether the final picture came to life or not depended upon the right colour separation. The original painter could use colours quite freely, but the carvers must analyse them carefully and separate them by making any number of blocks each of which would provide only one colour or shade. It can be said that it was the carver who really determined the quality of the reproduction of the artist's picture.
For this reason it is appropriate to place the names of the carvers side by side with the painters. But in Chinese society the carvers were treated not as artists, but only as artisans. In very few cases does the carver's name appear in the picture: it usually carries only the name of the painter or calligrapher.
Woodblock printing is a kind of relief printing, but there are two kinds of carving. When a block is printed, the areas which appear as white will be those that have been carved out of the face of the block with a chisel or knife. This is called positive carving. Almost all Chinese block printing used positive carving. If the process of carving is reversed and only the lines are carved out, they will appear white, when such a block is printed. When the black and white are reversed, this is called negative carving. Few Chinese works or prints used negative carving although sometimes we can find both positive and negative carving together in one picture in some of the fiction books printed in the mid Ch'ing period.
Chinese characters changed their style through centuries whenever new carving material was introduced. The shape of the scripts was strongly affected by the physical condition of the material being used for carving. The present style of Chinese characters belongs to the Formal Script (##) which was developed when woodblock printing was first introduced. Every stroke of the character is sharply formed and looks as though it has been cut by a knife. We do not see any sharp strokes from ancient classical scripts as sharp strokes could hardly be engraved on stones. The Drafting Script (*) and the Running Script (*) are simplified forms of the Classical Scripts and the Formal Script, and were developed for quick writing purposes.
Woodblocks are of two types. Those cut with the grain are called plank blocks; and those cut across the grain are called end-
186
DAVID H. S. CHAU
of different sizes had then to be made in order to produce different colours in colour picture printing. Whether the final picture came to life or not depended upon the right colour separation. The ori ginal painter could use colours quite freely, but the carvers must analyse them carefully and separate them by making any number of blocks each of which would provide only one colour or shade. It can be said that it was the carver who really determined the quality of the reproduction of the artist's picture.
For this reason it is appropriate to place the names of the car- vers side by side with the painters. But in Chinese society the car- vers were treated not as artists, but only as artisans. In very few cases does the carver's name appear in the picture: it usually carries only the name of the painter or calligrapher.
Woodblock printing is a kind of relief printing, but there are two kinds of carving. When a block is printed, the areas which appear as white will be those that have been carved out of the face of the block with a chisel or knife. This is called positive carving. Almost all Chinese block printing used positive carving. If the process of carving is reversed and only the lines are carved out, they will appear white, when such a block is printed. When the black and white are reversed, this is called negative carving. Few Chinese works or prints used negative carving although sometime we can find both positive and negative carving together in one picture in some of the fiction books printed in the mid Ch'ing period.
Chinese characters changed their style through centuries when- ever new carving material was introduced. The shape of the scripts were strongly affected by the physical condition of the material be- ing used for carving. The present style of Chinese characters be- longs to the Formal Script (##) which was developed when wood- block printing was first introduced. Every stroke of the character is sharply formed and looks as though it has been cut by a knife. We do not see any sharp strokes from ancient classical scripts as sharp strokes could hardly be engraved on stones. The Drafting Script (*) and the Running Script (*) are simplfied form of the Classical Scripts and the Formal Script, and were developed for quick writing purposes.
Woodblocks are of two types. Those cut with the grain are called plank blocks; and those cut across the grain are called end-
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.