Taohuawu woodblock New Year painting is a sub-plate water color overprint, printing first ink line version, and then according to the color of the manuscript and then sub-plate color. The colors are usually red, green, yellow, pink, purple and light ink.

Regardless of whether the color of the color plate is the same, it is a uniform flat brush when printing, regardless of the shade, but the "ring color" can be used, that is, the overlap of the two colors causes a compound color, which can enrich the color change.

In the printing process, the printer uses the "template" technique to make the ink line plate and the color plate accurate, so that the printed work is not distorted with the original. After the framing, a New Year's painting is completed.

Creation refers to the establishment of a design theme on the basis of being familiar with the production process, and drawing a draft rich in the characteristics of Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings. If the manuscript does not conform to the characteristics of process production and the rules of operation, it is just a good painting, and cannot become a manuscript that conforms to the artistic characteristics of Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings.

Sketch is to first outline the line draft for engraving, which is required to be outlined clearly with thick ink, and can not be played at will like freehand painting, resulting in difficulties in engraving, and the lines should not be too dense, nor should the thickness be too far apart, and the penmanship can not have too many frivolous turns, so that not only the carving effect is not good, but also will cause difficulties in printing.

After the line version is completed, the coloring draft should be divided according to the original first draft.

The line draft sketched by the painter should be read first, and the places that are not conducive to operation in the specific engraving process should be studied, and the painter should be reminded to revise it.

According to the line draft, select the suitable pear plank, and plan, sand flat.

The line drawing is hooked on the cicada paper (special transparent paper), and then pasted on the pear wood board smoothly and obediently, this process is extremely important, and the requirements can not be out of shape, pay attention to fingering, weight and weight, so the technical requirements are very high.

"The sample is set for life", this sentence fully illustrates the importance of pasting sketches for the production of Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings. Regardless of ink line drawing or color drawing, when pasting the drawing, the same kind of woodblock is first batched and planed according to the size of the manuscript paper, and then chiseled and polished to achieve a flat and fine finish.

The manuscript paper is first positioned with the layout, and four or five riding crosses are marked with a pencil around the manuscript paper and the junction of the layout, so that the manuscript paper will not be out of place when pasting. Then apply a thin homogenate paste all over the layout and quickly paste the manuscript paper.

When pasting the manuscript paper, use the left hand to hold the manuscript paper, and the right hand brushes out from the center to the surroundings with a small brown broom. If the manuscript paper is out of position, it cannot be corrected at the time of engraving.

The color version of the sticker paper is much more difficult than the ink line version, the color version is based on the ink line version, if there is a mistake with the ink line version, it must not be "on the set" when printing. Therefore, among the engraving artists, whether to put on the color plate or not is regarded as the first difficulty in this craft.

First of all, it is to use a fist knife to carve out the line version with four knife techniques (hair knife, lining knife, pick knife, and compound knife). "Hair knife" is to use a knife to draw inward on the right side of the line; "Liner knife" is a knife lined at a distance of about one minute to the left of the line; Then use the "pick knife" to pick the wood surface between the hair knife, the lining knife and the ink line, so that a line is carved; After the line is carved out, before knocking the bottom, it must be repeated at the root of the line, called "compound knife", and the compound knife should be slightly deeper than the first three knives, so that when knocking the bottom, it can not only smoothly knock out the space, but also ensure the firmness of the bottom of the line.

Although the knife techniques used are nothing more than these four, they still need to be treated separately according to different situations when engraving, and the knife work of engraving cannot be fully expressed in words, and the know-how still needs to be obtained by the engraving artist in continuous study and hard practice.

After the lines, points and surfaces are all carved, it is necessary to use tools such as bent chisels, flat chisels, hollowing, leek edges, needle chisels, root chisels, and chisels to knock the bottom and trim. The bottom of the shovel requires accurate playing of the knife and a smooth bottom of the shovel.

There is a trick: "The knife is accurate, the knife is ruthless, and the bottom of the shovel is light". The specific operation is as follows, first use the "bending chisel" to remove the space on the woodblock, and then use the "flat chisel" chisel flat, and then according to the different conditions of the size of the space, apply the "big hollow", "two hollow", "leek edge", "needle chisel", "root chisel" and other knocking bottom, and finally use the "chisel" to cut the bottom of the plate. If there is damage, it must be repaired in time by the revision process, which is still quite precise.

According to the line pattern, the artist will divide the version. After the line plate is carved, the plate-splitting draft should be selected, sampled, and engraved into a color plate.

After the line version and color plate are all completed, it is necessary to carefully review whether there is any out-of-set, missing version, broken line, etc., and the problem should be repaired in time. When reprinting, you can dig out a piece of the place that needs to be changed, and then insert a piece of wood chip of the same shape and size, and then draw it with ink lines according to the original manuscript.

After being reprinted by a master, there is no abnormality when printing. Requirements for patching: First of all, the woodblock must be of the same texture in order to be flat; Second, after digging and repairing, small nails should be used to nail them in appropriate places at the four corners; Thirdly, the shape of the block surface of the digging and repairing on the central layout is freer, and the shape of the digging and repairing at the edge must be trapezoidal, otherwise it is easy to fall off.

The overprinting process includes: reading the manuscript, feeding, printing the line plate, water clamping, touching the plate, printing overprint, and water clamping.

Reading the manuscript is divided into looking at the ink line draft and looking at the color draft. When looking at the ink line drawing, pay attention to check the layout, line organization and thickness of the ink line drawing.

The layout of the ink line drawing should be plump, so as to facilitate the smooth and smooth brushing of the broom during printing, so as not to hinder the movement of the hand due to the large space of the layout or cause the eraser to accidentally fall into the recess of the layout and pollute the paper, resulting in the so-called "tsubaki" when printing.

The line organization should be sparse and moderate, the line is too dense to brush clearly, easy to block, and it will also cause the color to be overprinted, the color is gray and dull, and the line is too thin not only to print inaccurately, but also to cause the color to be unable to highlight the brightness of the color contrast due to the lack of obvious ink line demarcation, and to avoid the "sleet" that Taohuawu woodblock New Year printing artists say, that is, the large block surface and the too thin lines are mixed together, resulting in two unflattering pictures.

Look at the color version, although the color distribution of Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures is mostly full version, it must not be dull, the color matching is light and appropriate, and the color block processing should be both full and the color distance should be similar. Otherwise, it will cause harsh or dirty colors.

Each printing material is 500 sheets, which should be neatly clamped under the scratch stick of the printing pad. When feeding, 500 pieces of paper should be cut first, to the left, that is, by pressing the edge of the plate, to make it a slight slope, about 30-45 degrees is appropriate, the slope from right to left, so that the upper scratch stick is not easy to move after fixing.

The black (ink) of the printed version is prepared by itself, and the chromaticity is required to be saturated, and the printing effect should be accurate, clear and clean. The ink color should be treated with glue (or pulp) in an appropriate proportion (pay attention to seasonal changes).

When printing the line plate or printing the overprint plate, it is required that the paper cutting paper, the tightness or looseness, flat or oblique of the paper will affect the accuracy of printing. It is common to press a "liner" on the left side of the stick to help the angle and smoothness of the paper, but the final effect is still determined by the hand.

The master cuts paper, not up or down, not left or right, tight and unified, five hundred sheets are always kept in the same position, pay attention to the accuracy of the layout. Broom work, the use of the broom first in the color of the color palette dipped in color, the plate needs to be heavier, in order to splash the color, full of layout.

Then, brush the layout evenly and quickly, and when the color is slightly dry, the paper is put on the plate, and the paper is used to erase the print. When brushing the broom, it should be prevented from overflowing into "color edges" due to excessive use of color, that is, overflowing to the edge of the layout or spilling out of the edge, or silting into blocks; It is also necessary to prevent the brown silk from falling off and polluting the picture.

In short, it is necessary to achieve the requirements of uniformity, accuracy, cleanliness and freshness of the colors on the picture. After the paper is plated, the wiper falls, and the scratch is gently from right to left, and then from the center to the surrounding area to set the position, and then rub out the picture with heavy and flexible force.

The requirements should not only be uniform, but also according to the situation of different thickness color blocks, use different light and heavy soft and hard efforts to deal with it, so as to achieve the requirements of uniformity, accuracy, cleanliness and freshness.

After printing the line version, it needs to be watered for about 20 minutes. The goal is to allow the ink to settle and remove some moisture.

The color plate should be combined with the ink line version, and the touch plate is an important level. The up, down, left and right parts should be touched. The large plates are padded with tide paper at the four corners of the back of the plates, and the small plates are glued with plaster meat, that is, the plaster raw materials sold in Chinese medicine stores, and are knocked with small hammers.

When there is a slight movement in the process of brushing, it is also necessary to pay attention to the knocking correction at any time.

According to the original color plate process program, especially when the ring plate process is to be used, the color plate sequence program should be set first. Generally, red, blue, and purple are printed first, and then yellow, and light ink are printed. After each set of plates is printed, the process of water clamping must be adopted.

The whole process should be uniform, accurate, clean and fresh. Avoid missing sets of prints, avoid repeating lines and colors.

Each set of colors printed, the paper surface is subject to a certain degree of moisture, not only the paper is elastic, the color is also easy to be wet, which will affect the accuracy of the next set of colors, which requires water barrier treatment.

This is done by placing a piece of dry cardboard in seven, eight, or a dozen sheets of paper. The water isolation time is about twenty minutes or half an hour. However, it should be noted that the time should not be too long, and the paper should not be too dry, otherwise the second set will be unevenly printed or even unprinted.

Therefore, in the process of printing, one hand of material, that is, 500 sheets of paper, must be completed with one hand and cannot be delayed. The water separation time of the last set should be slightly longer than that of the water separation time of the set, and the material should be cut after all the paper is dried. Then tidy up and wait for inspection.

The printed products will be carefully inspected and the genuine and defective products will be separated. The scope of inspection is: the accuracy and sharpness of the color, the accuracy of the overprint, and the neatness of the picture. Problems are found, repaired in time, and printed by hand with color or plate.

The themes of Taohuawu New Year's paintings, such as "Harmony and Prosperity", "Heavenly Official Blessing", "Wanbao Xiangrui", "Flowers Bloom and Wealth", "Happiness and Longevity", "Eight Immortals Celebrate Longevity", "Golden Rooster Dawn", etc.;

Exorcising evil spirits, such as "Door God", "Stove Jun", "Guan Gong", "Zhong Kui", "Jiang Taigong", "Zhang Tianshi", "Zhang Xian", etc.;

Current affairs and customs, such as "Legal Person Seeking Peace", "Suzhou Train to Wusong", "Liu Junke's Restoration of Xuantai Victory", "Spring Cow Picture", "Ten Beauty Kicking Ball Picture", "Gusu Bao'en Temple Incense Picture", "Foreign Lantern Beauty", "Family Carnival", "Yellow Cat and Mouse", etc.;

Opera stories, such as "Yang Jiajiang", "Zhongyi Hall", "The Legend of the West Chamber", "Monkey King's Havoc in the Heavenly Palace", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Mu Guiying's Great Breaking the Heavenly Gate", "Three Laughing Smoke", "Dingjun Mountain", "The Story of Bitter Meat", "Battle of the Northern Plains" and so on.

There are many varieties of Taohuawu New Year paintings, which can be roughly divided into beauty paintings, decorative pattern paintings, door paintings, agricultural paintings, children's, historical story paintings and Shenzhou legend paintings, among which superstitious pictures such as fairy Buddha statues have door gods, stove gods, and the so-called "evil spirits".

Pictures that contain the content of getting rich and profiting include "A Ball of Harmony", "Doll Profit", "Bangs Play Money", "Year of Dynasty" and so on. There are "Spring Cattle Picture", "Harvest Map", "Fish Wood Ploughing Reading", "Daqing Harvest" and so on.

Landscape paintings have landscapes from all over the world, such as "Gusu Wannian Bridge", "Suzhou Changmen Map" and so on. The stories and dramas that appeared after Yongzheng have a wide range, including ancient and modern, and there are singles and continuous, such as "Wu Song Fights the Tiger", "Huaguo Mountain", "Dingjun Mountain" and so on. The genre paintings include "Xuanmiaoguan Temple Fair", "Three Hundred and Sixty Lines of Drawings Inside and Outside Suzhou City" and so on.

The customs and customs have come to life and have become valuable local historical materials today. Some New Year paintings are full of patriotism, such as "Legal Person Seeking Peace" and "Liu Junmen's Defeat of the French Army", etc., praising Liu Yongfu, a patriotic general in the Sino-French War, which can be described as an earlier political propaganda poster.

The traditional Taohuawu woodblock New Year painting art has been rarely produced, but after all, there has been a glorious page in history, so as one of the main folk art styles in the old times, Taohuawu woodblock New Year painting industry has become a precious cultural relic, and gradually attracted people's attention.

Studying and researching Taohuawu New Year paintings is of great significance for the development of new art and the promotion of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation.

However, with the change of people's lifestyle, the practical function of Taohuawu New Year paintings has been greatly weakened, while the pure ornamental function has been improved. The changes in the market have affected the preservation of traditional skills in Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings, and the development of modern printing technology has had a huge impact on the handmade plates and printing skills of traditional woodblock New Year pictures.

There are fewer and fewer shops for Taohuawu New Year paintings, and the inheritance of traditional engraving techniques and dyeing and printing techniques is becoming more and more difficult. As a craft, the production process of Taohuawu New Year paintings has always had a clear division of labor, drafts, stereotypes, and printing operations.

But there are very few people who have mastered this skill. With Taohuawu New Year Painting as a permanent major of Suzhou Academy of Arts and Crafts, there is a fixed teaching base. The development and production of art collections and tourist souvenirs has become one of the main businesses of Taohuawu Woodcut New Year Painting Society.

The cultural department has vigorously carried out the collection of materials for the Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Painting Museum, which will be built into a collection, research and protection base for traditional woodblock New Year paintings.

However, due to the serious shrinkage of the traditional art survival market, the market of woodcut New Year paintings in the folk is almost close to zero, and there are very few people who insist on the creation of New Year paintings, and the lack of successors is difficult to change for a while.

Taohuawu New Year Painting is a folk woodblock New Year painting in the south of the Yangtze River, which was named after the production of Taohuawu in Suzhou City. It is known as China's five major folk woodblock New Year paintings together with the woodblock prints of Zhuxian Town in Henan, Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Yangjiabu in Weifang, Shandong and Jinzhu in Sichuan.

Taohuawu New Year paintings originated from the engraving and printing process of the Song Dynasty, evolved from the embroidered image map, and developed into a folk art school in the Ming Dynasty.

The printing of Taohuawu New Year's painting is both coloring and color overlay, the composition is symmetrical, plump, the color is gorgeous, often with purple red as the main tone to express the joyful atmosphere, basically all with color production, carving, color and modeling have a fine and elegant folk art style in the Jiangnan region, mainly showing auspicious and festive, folk life, drama stories, flowers, birds, vegetables and fruits and exorcism and other traditional Chinese folk aesthetic content.

Because of the influence of geographical location and environment, the style of Taohuawu New Year paintings has a general Jiangnan style, which is very fine and elegant.

Taohuawu is a small town north of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Because of the influence of geographical location and environment, the style of Taohuawu New Year paintings has a general Jiangnan style, which is very fine and elegant.

His themes are mainly based on traditional folk aesthetic content such as many drama stories, folk life, auspicious and festive, exorcism of ghosts and evil spirits, flowers, birds, vegetables and fruits, etc., each with its own eyes, so there is a large group of people who like this style. Take a look at the latest chapters of "Dream Claw Book House in the Great Era" and read it for free for the first time.