Brief introduction of woodcut watermark

Brush printing with ink and pigment on woodcut is one of the traditional woodcut printing methods of Han nationality in China, which is mainly used to create China traditional prints, copy paintings and other artistic works, also known as "woodcut watermark prints". Since the Tang Dynasty, China woodblock printing has almost completely used ink and wash, and the characters and pictures are all black. From the Yuan Dynasty to the 6th year of Yuan Dynasty (1340), Zhu Mo's double-color overlapping diamond sutra notes appeared. After Zheng De (1506 ~ 152 1) in the Ming Dynasty, overprinting became popular in Zhu Mo, with indigo printing and blue Zhu Mo three colors, blue yellow Zhu Mo four colors and Zhu Mo indigo yellow five colors. In the middle of Qing dynasty, there were six color books. The main idea is to add comments on the book's eyebrows and dots between lines, and each color represents a comment or comment. The color overprint of engraving is to first paint several colors on a page, such as red on flowers, brown and yellow on branches, and then cover with paper for printing. For example, Tian Mu Dui Ting Tu carved by Zilantang in Wanli period, Ju Tu in Cheng Mo Yuan and Flower History and Dianzhuzhai Calligraphy and Painting Spectrum carved in Wanli period. Later, it developed into several color plates superimposed.

A large number of China paintings and calligraphy were copied, New Year pictures were printed, and woodcut watermarks were widely used. The famous producing areas of woodblock New Year pictures are Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Hebei (now Tianjin), wei county in Shandong and Mianzhu in Sichuan, all of which began in the late Ming Dynasty and flourished in Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty (1723 ~ 1850). Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures are meticulous in style; Yangliuqing New Year pictures are influenced by college paintings of past dynasties, and their painting style is neat and realistic. The lines of Weixian New Year pictures are concise and powerful; Mianzhu New Year pictures emphasize symmetry and fullness. Some woodcut New Year pictures are multi-color overprint, and some just use wood to engrave the outline of lines, and then color them by hand to open the picture.

Woodcut watermarking technology is divided into three processes: sketching, carving and printing. First of all, according to the original design, copy the original on a transparent polyester sheet or celluloid sheet, and accurately describe the carving on goose skin paper according to the outline of the drawn ink line; Then stick it on the planed pear board or other fine lines board, and carve out line boards, dry pen boards or lithographs with different knife methods; Finally, select the materials and pigments used in the original work, paint the carved wooden board with ink, and then overprint it on Xuan paper, Shi Lian paper, cotton and linen paper or painted silk as required.