Rubbing (art)

A rubbing of portions of a book cover
Visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial make rubbings of names.

A rubbing (frottage) is a reproduction of the texture of a surface created by placing a piece of paper or similar material over the subject and then rubbing the paper with something to deposit marks, most commonly charcoal or pencil but also various forms of blotted and rolled ink, chalk, wax, and many other substances.[1] For all its simplicity, the technique can be used to produce blur-free images of minuscule elevations and depressions on areas of any size in a way that can hardly be matched by even the most elaborate, state-of-the-art methods.[example needed] In this way, surface elevations measuring only a few thousandths of a millimeter can be made visible.[2]

  1. ^ "Frottage | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  2. ^ Lukowsky, D., Failure Analysis of Wood and Wood-Based Products, McGraw-Hill Education; 1st edition (2015) ISBN 978-0-07-183937-2.