Wood engraving course with Chris Daunt

I started 2015 by spending two days in Newcastle, the former home of Thomas Bewick (pronounced “Buick” as in the car), learning how to make a wood engraving. I was joined by Alison Taubman of the NMS for personal lessons in this process by Chris Daunt.

Chris is the only UK supplier of engraving block made from boxwood and lemonwood. During our first session he explained how he harvested wood, allowed it to age and set, then cut it into segments. If his customers required larger usable blocks, he was able to join different bits of wood to create a suitable size.

We started practicing mark-making on bits of his spare wood, so that we could understand how each tool could be used. Each can make as specific type of cut, and certain blades are better suited for certain effects. The difference between a “wood cut” and “wood engraving” is the type of tools that are used. I knew that wood cuts used the side of a wood plank, while wood engravings used the end grain. Chris agreed, but he stressed that it was the tools that made the most difference.

Wood engraving uses tools similar to historic engravers working with copper, and later steel. Thomas Bewick was originally trained and worked as an engraver of metal before he began wood engraving. I also recalled reading that when Bewick set up wood engraving apprenticeships, he ran them along the lines that he, himself, had been trained. In the early 1800s, being his apprentice took seven years. Wood engraving was a good trade (considering some of the alternatives like working in factories). So many parents paid a master like Bewick, and sent their boys (starting around age 12 -14) to be trained with a master. Bewick’s apprentices, turned journeymen, turned masters in their own right, spread not just down to London and the rest of the UK, but also across Europe and to America.

Not only were Bewick’s books, like History of British Birds and General History of Quadrupeds influential, so were his pupils who spread his techniques in this craft

until it was eventually replaced by photographic processes in publishing, which required less artistically skilled workers. In other words, he directly and indirectly influenced book illustration for nearly a century.

As I tried to translate my drawing based on an image I’d seen in Multiples, the quarterly publication of the Society of Wood Engravers,

I could appreciate why it required 7 years to learn their skill. Although I can draw a little bit (my 8-year-old is more talented and prolific), every mark I wanted to make in the block felt counter-intuitive to me. Of course, that is because I was essentially creating a “negative” of my final image. Alison has a background in fine art, so she was more ambitious and her work was more complex than mine. But I know my artistic limits, so I went with small and simple.

Draughtsmanship in the 19th century was prized, intact, Bewick allowed apprentices that were naturally good at drawing a few extra hours a week to go off and draw what they liked so they could practice and become more skilled. I think Bewick then steered them towards being designers of their own work. Different engravers began to specialise with different types of images, for example animals, architecture, human form, botanical illustration and publishers sought their skills.

Needless to say, I am pleased with my final block. Chris cleaned it up a little bit, in addition to suggesting where certain lines and stippling should go to create tonal effects.

We then inked up our blocks with a roller and printed them on an Albion press. That was fun.