Drawings and engravings
The art of engraving draws
There are many types of drawings and there are also many ways to perform a drawg: with pens, pencils, paint and why not, by the use of an engraving machine. Drawings and engravings are very common images to see nowadays; if we attend to a party, the decoration will have images made of color papers or different materials. If we decide to attend to a church, we’ll also see several images but they won’t be similar at all, here an innovating technique was used to mark those pictures: glass engraving. There are many differences between ordinary drawings and engravings; as we said before drawings are just images that can be performed by any mortal; we only need some tools and materials and we can draw or paint any image we desire. But engravings include a specific technique; when we do engraving what we’re doing is to make pints on different surfaces (wood, plastic, etc.) plates into which design has been incised by a cutting element known as burin. But to carry out the engraving process we can choose among many alternatives: we can obtain our images by using our hand or we just can use an engraving machine. |
How to make an ordinary drawingAs we said before, drawings and engravings might share some characteristics but the processes that we use to perform each of them are completely different. If we desire to make an ordinary drawing we can carry out the task by using just a few elements or tools; we can start by designing a draft drawing only some lines in order to achieve the shape of the image. Then we can use that paper as a model of the final image we will obtain; to perform the final figure we need some colors (pencils, special pens, paint, etc). When the drawing is done, we can put some color on it and in this way we get an ordinary but lovely image. We can also draw on different surfaces, but this time we’ll need more tools and more materials, in case we use paint we’ll need a paintbrush and some specific painting made to be used on that specific surface. A drawing can be performed over wood, glass, plastic, paper, and almost everything. If we desire to paint on wood, we’ll have to prepare that material first by giving it shape and polishing it; then with our draft as a model, we’ll begin to make our figure by drawing the first lines. |
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EngravingsEngravings are much more difficult to make, that’s why we said that drawings and engravings might share the figure but not the procedures; to perform this activity we need to use special tools which are designed to carve or mark a surface. Here we also perform the drawing but this time this figure will be marked on the surface we chose. Engravings can be made by using a machine, an engraving pen or by using engraving tools. If we love to do this kind of activities then we’ll certainly choose the engraving tools, these were designed to be manipulated by human hand, they are made of metal, but they have wooden handles. The metal part is very sharp since the aim here is to carve the image we desire to obtain, this is the main difference with drawings, in where we just paint or draw the figure over the surface. « 25th anniversary award engraving |
When the image is very complicated to engrave, then we must be aware that we’ll need the help of an engraving machine; this machinery has the aim of engraving difficult images in different surfaces. We can mark glass, wood, plastic, metal and crystal; theses machines work with a laser beam which is in charge of engraving the image; but how does it work?. The process is very simple, we choose the image and the surface we want to engrave, once done, we program the computer system of the machine in order to engrave our image. Each system is different so the steps we must take will vary; but when the image is loaded on the machine, then this apparatus will do the rest of the job. Drawings and engravings may seem very similar to people, and although we refer to images when we talk about them, the way we obtain the final figures is very different. We also must consider that the tools and materials used to perform both activities are also opposite; and besides in the end of the each process we get different results somehow: the drawing might be erased but the engraving remains forever. |
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