Relief Print

A relief print is any print made from a raised surface, where the image to be printed stands proud of the block and the blank areas have been cut away. It is the oldest and most intuitive family of printmaking techniques, encompassing woodcut, linocut, wood engraving and block printing, as well as simpler stamped forms.

Understanding relief printing as a category helps make sense of how several of the most popular printmaking techniques relate to one another.

How relief printing works

In every relief technique, the principle is the same: the artist carves or cuts away the parts of a block that should remain unprinted, leaving the image raised on the surface. Ink is then rolled across this raised surface, reaching only the high points, not the cut-away recesses, and the block is pressed onto paper.

This is the opposite of intaglio printing (such as etching), where the ink sits in incised lines below the surface. In relief, the ink sits on top; in intaglio, it sits within.

The main relief techniques

• Woodcut – carved from a plank of wood along the grain, giving bold marks and natural texture.
• Linocut – carved from smooth linoleum, allowing cleaner lines and finer detail.
• Wood engraving – cut into the dense end-grain of hardwood with fine tools, capable of great delicacy.
• Block and stamp printing – simpler relief forms, often used on fabric as well as paper.

All share the same underlying logic, but each produces a distinctive character of line and surface.

Collecting relief prints

Relief prints are produced in signed, numbered editions. A telltale sign of an original is the slight impression the block leaves in the paper, along with the hand-laid texture of the ink. Bold contrast and confident mark-making are hallmarks of the medium.

At Byard Art, our print collection includes original relief prints, woodcuts, linocuts and more, from contemporary artists, each fully documented.