When performing the white line technique, you will use chisels to carve the design on a single wood block. Choose chisels of various sizes, small ones for details and larger ones to carve into more extended surfaces of the wood. The optimal wood for carving should be soft, and artists typically use poplar, pine, cherry of basswood. Alternatively, you can use oak, which is more difficult to carve, but it is sturdier and resists to several imprinting sessions, which is ideal if you want to create multiple versions of the design. When choosing the wood, look at its grain and texture, which will be visible in your design. The wood block has to be at least 3 inches thick. Use watercolors or black ink when printing and a spoon to rub the back of the paper to be printed.
Carve the desired design on a wood block using a chisel or a carving knife. Prepare the paper you want to print on. Apply a color on the wood block and place the paper on the wood. Rub the back of the paper with a spoon, to imprint the color on the paper. The raised areas will be imprinted on the paper. Remove the paper and allow the color to dry both on the paper and on the wood. Apply the following color and imprint it on the paper. Repeat this process with each color or section of your design.
The founders of the white line technique are six artists from Massachusetts, including Ethel Mars, Maude Squire, Mildred McMillen, Ada Gilmore, J. O. Nordfeldt and Juliette Nichols. The artists were influenced by the Japanese woodblock print technique, as well as the cubism and abstract expressionist artistic movements. The Princetown Printers broke with the traditional designs such as flowers, popular in the prints dating from the beginning of the 20th century. They adopted themes such as Parisian cafes and street life.
The name of the technique comes from the v-shaped groove artists place between the shapes, which results in several white lines in the finished print. The shapes would be imprinted on the paper, while the groves remained white. J.O. Nordfeldt was the first artist to placed the white-line technique distinctive v on her wood blocks and all the other Princetown printers followed suit.