Waterprint woodcut is not only a manual printmaking technique, but also carries copious traditional Chinese cultural implications and aesthetic value orientation. The combination of rice paper, woodblock and water-based pigment co-construct the physical characteristics and the ontological texture of waterprint woodcut. Each printing technique has its unique physical characteristics, for example, metal plate and oil ink, the fundamental physical characteristics of copperplate and lithograph are respectively composed of fine grains of slatestone and ink. These properties are the basic morphemes of printing techniques, and its artistic expression language is an undivided totality just like the inseparability of brush and ink. Carve the silk-thin luxuriant image lines on the hardwood board and print on rice paper with ink, which in itself can obtain works highly similar to those of traditional Chinese paintings. In the developing process of traditional watermark woodcut, the vivid restoration and reproduction of visual outcomes of Chinese sketch paintings or ink freehand brushwork have always been the driving force for the advancement of watermark woodcut technology. Although it is determined by the image reproduction and the production behavior of watermark woodcut, it also profoundly indicates people’s aesthetic appreciation and consumption habits. It is because people failed to offer independence to watermark woodcut that they only praise for its astonishing ability to copy ink paintings. “The visual presentation of watermarking prints, constructed by rice paper, wood and ink, should be regarded as an image illustration symbiotic with graphics, as a national language excelled at emotional expression with infinite possibilities of combinations of ink and paper. The warm and humid sense of water, born from the affinity between Chinese people and nature, conveys the poetic sentiment in the vein of Chinese traditional culture and art.”

Printing is the most important procedure in waterprint woodcut production, which not only requires the creator to be familiar with the printing process, to intelligently control paper, plate and environmental humidity but also to complete secondary production according to the effect of the picture in the process of printing. The old saying in waterprint woodcut, “A good print embodies thirty percent of engraving and seventy percent of printing,” which is indicative of the creativity in the printing process. Printers should not simply do mechanical reproduction work, but art re-creations inspired by the original image draft. Even though in ancient reproductive printmaking productions, those experienced printers can also use dim-sum sized woodblocks to create vivid images the same as the original works by virtue of profound calligraphy and painting accomplishment, through the mastery of the depth of the pigments, the change of dryness and wetness of rice Paper and the control and application of water in printing. As a well-known European printer said, "There is no other printmaking art in the world like Chinese colored watermark woodcut that relies entirely on the printer’s resonance and understanding of artworks.

In the printing process of watermark woodcut, the control of water is vital because it relates directly with the consistency, lightness, dryness and moisture of the printing results. As an important intermediate, water compels the pigments to penetrate deep into the wood fibers, and then permeate into the rice paper fibers through the application of pressure. Unlike oil-based ink, which only lingers on the surface of the paper, woodblock expedites the dispersal of ink particles on the rice paper to display a transparent and subtle difference, which is highly comparable to the association between ink and paper in Chinese ink painting. Therefore, waterprint woodcut naturally shares the same cultural attributes with Chinese ink painting. “Ink painting is not only a painting tradition but also a profound understanding of Chinese culture, philosophy and being.”  The brush and ink constitute the basic spiritual form of Chinese ink painting and modern waterprint woodcut not only holds the attractiveness of Chinese ink painting but also owns the language of modern paint art. The expression of emotion and power combine with rhythm, combination and resonance of the knife during the engraving and plate-making process let modern waterprint woodcut possess an artistic language, characteristic juxtaposition of wood, water and knife, which is also the most basic morphological element and aesthetic feature of modern waterprint woodcut.