Jeremiah Hancock
Casey Lewis
Vicky Enoul
Avery Porter
Laura Ball
Alexandra Cole
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Describes a variety of techniques developed to
create multiple copies of a single image
Prints in Our Society:
Newspapers
 Books
 Posters
 Magazines
 Greeting cards
 Billboards
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Technologies for both printing & papermaking
came to Europe from China
By 9th century, China was printing pictures
By 11th century, China invented movable type
Printmaking developed in Europe in 15th
century
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In 19th century, printmakers were still needed
to copy drawings, paintings, & even early
photographs by making plates to be used,
along with movable type, for illustrating
newspapers & books
As photomechanical methods of reproduction
were developed in the late 19th century,
handwork was not as necessary in the process
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Artists have continued to use the old
handcrafted printmaking processes to take
advantage of their uniquely expressive
properties
By designing & printing multiple originals,
today’s printmakers can sell their works for
much less than one-of-a-kind paintings
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Most all original prints are numbered to
indicate the total number of prints pulled, or
printed, in the edition, & to give the number of
each print in the sequence
Example:
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The figure 6/50 on a print would indicate that the
edition totaled 50 prints & that this was the 6th print
pulled
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As part of the process, artists make prints
called progressive proofs at various states to
see how the image on the block, plate, stone, or
screen is developing
When a satisfactory stage is reached, the artist
makes a few prints for record & personal use
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These are marked AP (artist’s proof)
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Range from simple to complex
Divided into 4 basic categories:
Relief
 Intaglio
 Planographic (lithography)
 Stencil (screenprinting)
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Contemporary artists are using the old
methods in new ways, sometimes combining
them with digital techniques
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The relief process, is where the printmaker cuts
away all parts of the printing surface not meant
to carry ink, leaving the design to be printed
“in relief” at the level of the original surface.
That surface is then inked and the ink is
transferred to paper with pressure.
Woodcut (woodblock), wood engraving, and
linoleum cut (linocut) are various types of relief
processes.
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Examples of printmaking in the everyday
world include fingerprints, rubber stamps, and
marks made by wet tires.
When using other colors than black and white,
blocks must be registered (lined up) so that
colors will be exactly positioned in the final
print.
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Block printing from woodcuts was first employed
to spread Buddhism in China.
The Diamond Sutra is an example of this technique
that can still be observed today.
Woodblock printings that flourished in Japan
during the nineteenth century were made through
a complex process that used many blocks to
achieve color effects. Where block printing in
China was used to promote religious beliefs,
printings in Japan depicted night life scenes,
celebrities, landscapes, and erotic pictures.
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Hokusai, a Japanese artist, is known for his
color woodcut prints.
Although very different in appearance,
Hokusaiʼs “The Wave” and Noldeʼs “prophet”
were made using the same general technique.
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Linoleum cut (linocut) is a modern
development in relief printing, where the artist
gouges out areas of a synthetic surface of
linoleum. These areas are not intended to take
ink.
This method could be preferred because it has
no grain and can be cut easily in any direction.
Elizabeth Catlettʼs “Sharecropper” (as seen
below) was made using this particular method.
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Opposite of relief
Areas below the surface hold the ink
Intaglio – from the Italian intagliare “to cut into”
Image to be printed is cut or scratched into a
metal surface by steel or diamond-tip tools, or
etched into the surface by acid
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First, printmaker daubs the plate with viscous
printer’s ink
Then, wipe the surface clean, leaving ink only in
the etched or grooved portions
Next, damp paper is placed on the inked plate
Which then, passes beneath the press roller
A print is made when the dampened paper picks
up the ink in the grooves
The pressure of the roller creates a characteristic
plate mark around the edges of the print
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Traditionally, intaglio printing was done from
polished copper plates
Now used:
Zinc
 Steel
 Aluminum
 Plastic
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Two Principal Intaglio processes
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Engraving
Etching
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An intaglio printmaking process in which
grooves are cut into a metal or wood surface
with a sharp cutting tool called a burin or
graver. Also the resulting print.
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Lines are made by pushing the burin through the
metal to carve a groove.
Thousand of fine lines define the shapes, masses,
spaces values.
Textures of the depicted objects.
Copper Engraving
Claw Engraving
Wood Engraving
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A printmaking process
To begin this process, you must first prepare a
metal plate with a protective coating of acidresistant material that covers the copper or zinc
called a ground.
Then, the printmaker uses a pointed tool to
draw through the ground, exposing the metal,
which will create more relaxed or irregular
lines than those of engravings.
The plate is then immersed into acid.
Christ Preaching. C. 1652
Etching.
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The acid then “bites”
into the plate where
the drawing has
exposed the metal,
making a groove that
varies in depth
according to the
strength of the acid
and the length of time
the plate is in the acid
bath.
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Aquatint is an etching process used to obtain
shaded areas in black-and-white or color
prints.
When the plate is put down into the acid, the
areas that are exposed between the paint
particles are eaten away to produce a rough
surface that can hold ink.
This in turn produces values that are light or
dark.
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In Francisco Goya’s
print entitled “The
Disaster of War,” he
achieves the lightly
colored sky and some
of the shading on the
ground by using
aquatint along with
etched lines.
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Developed in the early nineteenth
century, Lithography is a surface
or planographic printing process
based on the mutual antipathy of
oil and water. Lithography is
faster and somewhat more flexible
than other methods because of its’
directness while applying the oil
or water.
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People can often mistake a lithograph
painting with a crayon drawing
because they look similar. Another
negative aspect of using lithography is
that it is very easy to reproduce, and
therefore the work sells for less.
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The steps required for completing
a painting when it comes to using
litho crayons, litho pencils, or a
greasy liquid called tusche are:
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First the artist draws the image on a
flat, fined-grained Bavarian limestone.
Once the image is complete, it is
chemically treated with gum arabic
and a small amount of acid to “fix” it
on the upper layer of the stone.
After that the surface is the dampened
with water and is inked.
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Steps continued:
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The oil-based ink is repelled by
the water in the blank areas, but
it adheres to the greasy area of
the image.
The last step is complete once the
surface is covered with paper,
run through a press, and then
transferred to the paper.
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Honore Daumier was one of
the first great lithographic
artists. He made his living
drawing satirical and
documentary lithographs for
French newspaper. The work
he did reflected his feelings
and also would convey
information in the way news
photographs and television do
today.
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Modern screenprinting is a refinement of the
ancient and simple technique of stencil
printing
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Also known as silkscreen or serigraphy (seri is Latin
for silk)
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Silk was the traditional material used for the screen
Stencil Technique:
Stencil is attached to a screen made of silk fabric stretched
across a frame
 A squeegee is used to push ink through the fabric in the
open areas of the stencil to make an image of the stencil on
the material being printed
 Synthetic fabric is used today
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Ester Hernandez made hundreds of posters declaring
Chicano identity and attacked the working conditions of
Mexican-American laborers.
“Sun Mad” Ester Hernandez
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“Exile” Elizabeth Murray
A “twenty-three color lithograph and screenprint
Construction with collage and pastel.”
Layers of screenprinting/silkscreening
Screenprinting to the extreme
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1: New types of printing material
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2: Digital technology
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Contemporary methods and technological
methods are often mixed
Photomechanical methods of reproduction
have taken handwork out of the process
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“Digital technology has altered printmaking at
a basic level by eliminating the tangible plate.”
This has led to infinitely reproducible prints
“Novel means of controlling the size of an
edition”
Gilbert and George-Downloading time
constraint
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Japanese woodcut techniques and digital image
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http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/~sma/images/print/prd157z.
gif
http://www.oldbookillustrations.com/gallery/science/woodengraving-tools.jpg
http://www.sherline.com/images/graver.gif
http://www.rps.psu.edu/indepth/graphics/hedgescopper.jp
g
http://www.porcuprints.com/printmaking/
http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/jbw/gfx/cabinet
13/13-PA-4025-A75-LX43-detail.jpg
http://www.athens-travel-guide.gr/claw_engraving.jpg
http://www.posho.com/Comm2680/GraphicsInID/pictures/types/05_wood
_engraving.jpg
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http://andreas.com/hokusai.html
http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages
/Nolde.html
http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_AfAm/
pages/AfAm_8.shtml
http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile
/Gallagher_Ellen-DeLuxe_Mr._Terrific
http://www.artedigitalcuba.cult.cu/7salon/sa
lon/cuerpo/alicia2.htm