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What is printmaking?
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Why would an artist choose to make prints?
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Relief – raised areas hold ink
Intaglio- incised areas hold ink
Lithography- image area holds ink, non image area
repels ink.
Screen Printing – ink passes through screen areas that
are not blocked.
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Wood cut
Registration
Wood engraving
Linocut
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Wood cut draws the desired image and then cuts away
what they don’t what to retain. For color several blocks
are used. (china)
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Registration of the blocks meant that they all were
aligned correctly and that the image would print with
out overlapping etc.
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Wood engraving – Created on the end grain of the
wood. Cutting in any direction with out chips, using a
tool that creates fine grooves that don’t hold the ink,
these grooves then become fine white lines in the
finished image, (kind of look like an intense ink
drawing with lines.)
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Linocut, or linoleum, much like wood cut but it is
much softer and easier to carve away. Less durableresults in smaller editions.
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Opposite of relief, the printed image is below the
printing plate. Artist uses sharp tool or acid to make
lines, and grooves and then the ink is applied and the
above surface wiped clean. Damp paper is then
applied under pressure and soaks up the ink.
Engraving
Drypoint
Mezzotint
EtchingAquatint-
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Engraving oldest of intaglio techniques: uses a sharp
v-shaped tool called a burin
To cut lines in metal. Shallow grooves create light
lines and deep grooves create dark lines. Until the
invention of lithography and photography in the 19th
century engraving was the primary way that works of
art were reproduced and disseminated.
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Drypoint like engraving but a drypoint needle is used
to draw the image onto the metal. The needle scratches
the metal creating a burr that holds the ink.
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Mezzotint a reverse process working dark to light.
Creates graded areas of value without using line.
Artist first roughens the plate with a tool called a
Rocker. The whole area catches ink and has to be
rubbed/smoothed to create light areas. This is done
with a burnisher: smoothing tool or a scraper to
wear down the rough burrs. Became a popular way of
reproducing famous paintings in black and white.
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Etching- done with acids. First artist coats the plate
with a ground: beeswax, asphalt, and other materials.
Draws on the place with an etching needle the
removes the ground and exposes the metal. Acid is
then applied and eats away at lines: will not be as
sharp as those of engraving. Plate is cleaned and then
printed.
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Aquatint- Creates flat areas of different values. Artist
first dusts the plate with a powdered resin. Plate is
then heated and the resin sticks to it. Plate when
dipped into acid will eat around the resin particles. So
the lighter you dust it the darker the value. This
technique does not create lines so it is almost always
combined with another technique.
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Is a planographic process: the printing surface is flat.
Is dependant on the principal of oil and water not
mixing. Artist first draws on the stone with a greasy
material. Crayon or greasy ink- Tusche, and then the
stone is processed through acid to seal in the drawing.
The stone is then wetted and inked. The ink will stick
to the greasy drawing but not the wet areas.
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Kind of like using a stencils. The screen a fine mesh
material: synthetic or silk. Portions that are not meant
to be printed are blocked out with a glue. Screen is
placed over the paper and then ink is forced through the
non blocked sections of the screen using a tool called a
Squeegee. Process repeated for various colors.
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The exception to the rule- only one print is made. Artist
paint on a smooth surface normally with diluted oil
paints. Paper is then applied to the top and you receive
your printed image.