Is no one asking for traditional New Year paintings anymore? Internet celebrity anchor thinks woodcut is good | friend | tradition
That morning, I was fighting with a cabinet of old books when the phone rang. A friend invited me to Fengqiao and said there was something very popular there. They asked me to go check in together. I didn't hear her clearly. When she sent it over on WeChat, I laughed and said, "Isn't it just the fast food version of the Taohuawu woodcut New Year painting?"? What was sent over was a short video, and in the voiceover, the anchor happily said, "Finally, it's covered! The beautiful seal set in Suzhou is really beautiful!" I fixed my eyes on it and it was indeed a "seal set.". Firstly, there is "seal". However, unlike the traditional use of seal engraving and ink paste, these seals come with their own ink. As long as you press them down, a spring like mechanism will click, and corresponding patterns will appear on the paper. The ink is not too much, not too much, and the colors are clear and appropriate. Next is the "set", each set has a different quantity. The set I saw has six seals, and under the first seal, several yellow blocks appear on the white postcard; Under the second stamp, there are several blue lines on the postcard that are superimposed on top of the yellow; Then the third seal was printed with a green pattern, vaguely resembling the shape of a Tiger Hill Pagoda. In the upper right corner of the postcard, with a yellow background and blue edges, and green details embellished, it was a majestic paper kite; Continuing with the fourth seal, overlaid with red dots and lines, it appears to be a blooming lotus flower; The fifth one is rendered with a lotus red background; The sixth imprint is black, and the final imprint outlines the contours of each pattern with black lines. When pressed down, the eaves and pillars of the Hefeng Sifang Pavilion, the solemnity and simplicity of the Tiger Hill Pagoda, and the foolishness and playfulness of the Kunqu Opera cat all jump onto the paper with a click. I feel like I wrote a poem: the first one rises quietly, the second and third ones are gradually carried on, then the fourth and fifth ones spin passionately, and finally the sixth one tightly and tightly. Isn't this the principle of plate printing for Taohuawu woodcut New Year paintings? The so-called New Year paintings, of course, are paintings used to decorate houses during the Chinese New Year holiday. They are usually festive and auspicious content, with colorful and colorful flowers. Of course, literati and gentry can draw their own paintings, while most ordinary people need to purchase them. Like Spring Festival couplets, New Year paintings, almanacs, and couplets, every household has a demand, and if there is a large demand, there is a large supply. If we rely on manual painting one by one, it is obvious that we cannot meet the huge market demand. So the production of New Year paintings uses the technique of woodblock printing. Engraving printing is not a color printer, it can switch various colors as desired; If on a carved board, each print is painted with different colors of oil according to the needs of the pattern, what is the difference between this workload and manual painting one by one? At this point, the wisdom of the working people can be seen - ancient people invented color separation printing. Split the pattern according to color, and if there are several colors on the picture, it is necessary to carve a few blocks. For a picture that does not appear to be very complex in color, it is often necessary to carve 30 to 40 blocks. Perhaps there are only a few unpatterned curves on this plate, and that plate only carves a few protrusions in the corners, making the viewer puzzled. However, when following the principle of "light to deep, light to thick" color by color printing, the final color printed product has a symmetrical composition and brilliant colors, and its depth and intensity can reach almost the same level as the original painting. I once personally printed a picture of "Unity and Harmony" at the Taohuawu Woodcut New Year Painting Museum next to Park Garden. Because it was a color scheme, the pattern
