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Printmaking

Print is the image printed on a piece of paper or other material which was previously engraved on a plate. A print is created after inking the plate and printing.

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Relief and intaglio printing are techniques that use actual engraving. Lithography, monoprinting, collagraphy and screenprinting - where printing plates are not engraved - form part of the printmaking techniques as they use the element of printing. All of the above techniques are called PRINTMAKING.

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The “families”

Intaglio printing: This method appeared in Europe in the 15th century. The intaglio plate – made of zinc, steel and most often of copper - is ready when the image has been achieved in the form of grooves, recessed areas which can be more or less deep, and print black when the plate is inked. The ink must go fully into every recess. Then it ink is carefully wiped from the surface. The recessed areas can be achieved mechanically (directly, by the artist’s hand) or chemically (corroded by acid). This process needs a great pressure, so that the paper can reach down into the grooves or recessed areas. In this process there is reversal of the image from the plate to the paper. Belong to this family: engraving, mezzotint, dry point, etching and aquatint.

Planographic printing: This method appeared at the end of the 18th century. The printing surface is flat, the printing and the non-printing areas are on the same level, without relief or recesses. Some areas only catch the ink. The printing surface (stone or metallic plate) is chemically treated so that only the designed areas are made receptive to the printing ink. In this process there is reversal of the image from the printing surface to the paper. Belong to this family: lithography, zincography, and monotype which consists in a simple transfer of ink / paint from the plate to the printing paper.

Relief printing: The oldest method of printing methods, testified in Europe in the 14th century. The non-printing areas are carved out, and the ink is carried on raised upper parts of the printing surface. In this process there is reversal of the image from the block / plate to the paper. There are two methods: The design may be on the raised parts (the characteristic is the black line). It may also be drawn in white (the design is carved); in that case the characteristic is the white line. The principal characteristic of relief printing is the black line (positive printing), but it can be a drawing in white on black (negative printing). Belong to this family: woodcut, wood engraving and linocut.

Stencil printing: Contemporary method of printing which is more closely related to colouring by stencil than to true printing. The design is achieved on a screen which consists of a rectangular wood or metal frame over which a mesh of very fine strands is stretched and stapled. The mesh (silk, metallic or synthetic materials) is blocked out in the places without design. The ink passes through the open part where the design is situated. There is NO reversal of the image from the printing surface to the paper. This family is represented by screenprint.

Main printmaking techniques, according to the material of the printing surface and how this surface has been worked. When the printing surface has been worked, it is inked and printed by hand or taken through a special press (different presses for the different families).

Aquatint: This technique appeared in the 18th century to imitate wash processes. The term is generally applied to the various methods used to etch areas of granulated texture printing as areas of tone. The metal plate (usually copper) is covered with powdered rosin and the rosin dust is fused onto the plate by careful heating. The globules prevent the acid from attacking the copper below them, allowing it to bite in the gaps between them. Then the plate is bitten in a weak solution of acid. Tonal variation depends on the density of rosin; strength of solution and length of bite and number of bites (the plate may be bitten several times, with application of stopping-out varnish onto the places which are sufficiently bitten). Aquatint is worked from white to dark. After the bite, the rosin ground is dissolved with spirit. The plate is ready to be inked and printed intaglio.

Collagraph / Collograph / collage print / Collage intaglio: Contemporary technique. A collagraph is a print made from a collaged plate. Flat objects or substances are glued to the plate. It can be inked and printed relief or intaglio.

Dry point: Intaglio technique which uses the point without etching. The image is scratched or scored into the surface of a metal (usually copper) plate with a steel or diamond point. If the burr (tiny rims of raised and jagged metal forced up by the sharp and heavy point) is not scraped away, it retains the ink and achieves the delicate grey and the rich black lines of this kind of print.

Engraving: Intaglio engraving is the technique of incising lines and dots into and through the surface of a flat metal plate, without acid. The tool is known as a “burin” or “graver” (a solid rod of highly polished steel, square or lozenge-shaped in section, with a cutting point that is formed by sharpening one end to an oblique section). It is essentially a line technique, often referred to as “line-engraving”.

Etching: An intaglio technique where the image (lines or tones) is corroded by the action of acid. With the traditional method, such as line-etching, the drawing is made with an etching-needle directly onto a metal (copper, zinc, aluminium or steel) plate first coated with a hard wax ground. Where the needle penetrates the wax, it exposes the metal surface to the subsequent action of the acid. To obtain some lines darker than others the etcher can put several times the plate in acid using stopping out varnish on the light ones, or he can add new lines (which will be lighter) to the image during the etching process. The wax ground is removed and the plate is inked and printed intaglio.

Linocut / linoleum cut: The material of the plate is linoleum (plastic). The plate is cut, inked and printed like a wood block.

Lithography: The method is based on the antipathy between grease and water. The image is created on the lithographic stone (limestone) in the form of greasy marks (drawing or painting). A weak etching with gum Arabic mixed with nitric acid makes these marks fully receptive to grease and fully resistant to water. The stone is damped. The printing ink remains on the roller wherever it meets a damp part of the stone, but it is transferred to the stone wherever it encounters grease. Then the inked stone is placed in the lithographic press.

Mezzotint / Half tint: A tonal intaglio method without the use of acid. The surface of a metal (usually copper) plate is systematically roughened into a mass of close-cut, regular indentations. The tiny troughs and peaks in the metal would print a uniform and velvety dark. The image and the lights are obtained by scraping and burnishing into the ground – working from dark to light. The intact ground prints black, tones are achieved by scraping and white by burnishing, flattering the grained surface. Then the plate is inked intaglio, carefully wiped and printed.

Mixed methods: The expression includes all the processes using different methods to achieve one print. Colour prints may be achieved by a mixed method combining relief printing with intaglio printing of the same plate, or mechanical and chemical methods. Colour prints can also be taken from different printing surfaces.

Monotype: A unique, “one off” print made by painting, on an unworked (without scratching, or carving...) glass, zinc or plastic surface. It may be achieved by drawing with printing ink, or painting with oil paint. The plate is immediately printed by hand or on a press.

Screen printing: The method has a natural affinity with colour printing in the sense that the image is built up by the application of inks of different colours. The image is created on a screen. A wide range of techniques has been developed for achieving the design of the stencil on the screen so that the mesh is blocked out where there is no image. The ink passes through the opened parts of the mesh:

Blocking out manner: The screen can be worked in a negative / a positive manner, by painting the image / the white areas of the image with a blocking out substance which hardens and prevents the printing ink passing through.

Washing manner: the image is drawn or painted in a greasy substance, and the entire screen is painted over with a thick water-based material; once the material is dry, the stencil is washed with turpentine, dissolving the grease and leaving those shapes which were hand-painted as the open part through which the ink passes.

Photographic transfer: The design is created and transferred to a photographic film. The film is placed on the screen which has been covered with a light-sensitive substance. Film and screen are exposed to the light which hardens on the mesh in all the white areas of the image while the unexposed places remain soluble and let the ink pass through after washing with water.

Wood engraving - woodcut: The ink is carried on raised upper parts of the wood block.

Wood cutting: The side-grain woodblock (a length of wood that is cut parallel with the flowing sap and grain in a tree trunk) is carved with knifes and gouges. Every part of the surface is removed except the lines, the combinations of which create the image, the volumes and the tones.

Wood engraving: It appeared at the end of the 18th century. The prints are taken from end-grain / cross-grain woodblocks. (The “end-grain” block is cut from a “cross-sawn” section of hard wood. Wood engraving may be with white or black lines.