Wood-Block Printing | Page 8

set of blocks consists of a key-block and several colour blocks. The
block that must be cut first is that which prints the line or "key" of the
design. By means of impressions from this key-block the various other
blocks for printing the coloured portions of the design are cut. The
key-block is the most important of the set of blocks and contains the
essential part of the design.
A drawing of that part of the design which is to be cut on the key-block
should first be made. This is done on the thinnest of Japanese tissue
paper in black indelible ink. The drawing is then pasted face downward
on the prepared first block with good starch paste. It is best to lay the
drawing flat on its back upon a pad of a few sheets of paper of about
the same size, and to rub the paste on the surface of the block, not on
the paper. The block is now laid down firmly with its pasted side on the
drawing, which at once adheres to the block. Next turn the block over
and lay a dry sheet of paper over the damp drawing so as to protect it,
and with the baren, or printing rubber, rub the drawing flat, and well on
to the block all over.
The drawing should then be allowed to dry thoroughly on the block.
With regard to the design of the key block, it is a common mistake to

treat this as a drawing only of outlines of the forms of the print. Much
modern so-called decorative printing has been weak in this respect. A
flat, characterless line, with no more expression than a bent gaspipe, is
often printed round the forms of a design, followed by printings of flat
colour, the whole resulting in a travesty of "flat" decorative treatment.
The key design should be a skeleton of all the forms of a print,
expressing much more than mere exterior boundaries. It may so suggest
form that although the colour be printed by a flat tint the result is not
flat. When one is unconscious of any flatness in the final effect, though
the result is obtained by flat printing, then the proper use of flat
treatment has been made. The affectation of flatness in inferior colour
printing and poster work is due to a misapprehension of the true
principle of flat treatment.
[Illustration: Plate V. Impression (nearly actual size) of a portion of a
Japanese wood block showing great variety in the character of the lines
and spots suggesting form.]
(To face page 26.)
As an illustration of the great variety of form that may be expressed by
the key-block, a reproduction is given (page 33) of an impression from
a Japanese key-block. It will be seen that the lines and spots express
much more than boundaries of form. In the case of the lighter tree
foliage the boundaries are left to be determined entirely by the
subsequent colour blocks, and only the interior form or character of the
foliage is suggested. The quality or kind of line, too, varies with the
thing expressed, whether tree, rock, sea, or the little ship. The design,
too, is in itself beautiful and gives the essential form of the entire print.
The study of the drawing of any of the key-blocks of the Japanese
masters will reveal their wonderful power and resource in the
suggestion of essential form by black lines, spots, and masses of one
uniform tint of black or grey. The development of this kind of
expressive drawing is most important to the designer of printed
decoration, whether by wood blocks, or lithography, or any other
printing process.

Other good types of drawing for the purposes of key-blocks in wood
are given on Plate V facing page 26 and Plate XVI p. iii in Appendix.
When the key-block with its design pasted upon it is thoroughly dry, a
little sweet oil should be rubbed with the finger at that part where the
cutting is to begin, so as to make the paper transparent and the black
line quite clear.
In order to keep the block from moving on the work-table, there should
be fixed one or two strips of wood screwed down, to act as stops in
case the block tends to slip, but the block should lie freely on the table,
so that it may be easily turned round during the cutting when necessary.
One should, however, learn to use the cutting knife in all directions,
and to move the block as little as possible.
The knife is held and guided by the right hand, but is pushed along by
the middle finger of the left hand placed at the back of the blade, close
down near the point. The left hand