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From the artist who Nicholas Basbanes calls "the most important book illustrator working in America today" comes a primer on the art of wood engraving, a pursuit one can "learn" in less than an hour but can master only through years of persistence, dedication, and tenacity.
There is a lifetime of knowledge in this book that attempts to instruct the reader in how to think in the medium's properties of line, shape, and ink; how to transfer a drawing onto a block, select a paper, and prepare the block for printing. There is advice, too, on tools: not only on gravers (burins, scorpers, stipplers, and spitzstickers) but also on lights (you'll need a good strong one) and engraving bags (the leather pillows that cradle the blocks as you carve). Here is how to ink and how to print. Here, too, is how to fail, how to move on, and how to acquire the work habits that lead to real achievement.
