The Importance of Printmaking

Drawing and painting are special because they can take a long time to create and because they are originals.

Printmaking makes artwork available to the general public. Because multiples prints can be made of one artwork which make them more accessible to people.

METHODS OF PRINTMAKING

4 Major Categories:1. Relief2. Intaglio3. Lithography4. Serigraphy (silkscreen)

METHODS OF PRINTMAKING, continued…

• A design or image is made in or on a surface by scratching, carving or pressing with a tool. As well as using chemicals.

• Print - the piece of paper or surface that the design is then transferred to.

• Matrix - the working surface. Matrixes includes: – wood blocks– Metal plates– Stone slabs– and silkscreen

RELIEF PRINTINGRelief Printing - 1. The matrix is carved with a knife or gouges.

(Cut out areas are not printed, while the raised areas are.)

2. Ink is applied to the raised surfaces(often using a roller)

3. The matrix is run through a press against a sheet of paper and the image is transferred.

Types of relief printing include:1. Woodcut2. Wood Engraving3. Linoleum4. Metal Type

Woodcut

• Oldest form of printmaking. • After the invention of the printing press

it played an important role in book illustration.

• Made by cutting along the grain of the flat surface of a wooden board with a knife called a gouge.

Woodcuts

Woodcuts

Woodcuts

Linocut

Linocut

Printing presses

Wood Engraving

• Laminated - for wood engraving many thin layers of wood are glued together to create a hard, non-directional flat surface.

• Burin or graver is used to incise lines instead of using knives or gouges– Very fine lines can be made with the burin, and

these lines can give the illusion of tonal gradations

• Wood engraving was used to illustrate newspapers and books with a letterpress.

Wood Engraving

Figure 7.6, p.139: PAUL LANDACRE. Growing Corn (1940). Wood engraving. 8 1⁄2” x 4 1⁄4”.

INTAGLIO

• Created by using metal plates (copper, zinc, or steel) into which lines have been incised.

• Plates are covered with ink which is forced into the groove.

• Then the ink is wiped off the flat surfaces. • And the paper and plate are run through a

press• The paper is soaked in water and pressed in

the lines and the image is transferred to the paper as it runs through the press.

Intaglio includes:

• Engraving• Drypoint• Etching• Mezzotint • Aquatint

Engraving• Engraving is an ancient artistic method• Clean lines on copper, zinc, or steel are

made using a burin.• The harder you push, the deeper the line,

the more ink it holds, the darker the resulting line is on paper.

Engraving

Figure 77, p.139: Antonio Pollaiuolo. Battle of Ten Naked Men (1465-1470). Engraving

Engraving

Drypoint

• Drypoint is engraving with a twist. • A needle is dragged across the surface

which leaves a rough edge or metal burr left in its wake.

• This burr create a soft line instead of a crisp line.

Figure 7.8, p.140: REMBRANDT VAN RIJN. Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves (1653). Drypoint, 4th state. 15” x 17 1⁄2”.

Etching

• Etching is an intaglio process, but there are unique differences.

• Minimal pressure is used for the depth of the line in etching

• A chemical process does the rest.How:1. A metal plate is covered with a acid resist and

liquid like wax or resin.2. Once dry the artist scratches this surface off with a

needle. 3. Then you put the plate in acid and it eats away the

exposed areas, deepening the lines.

Etching

Etching

HENRI MATISSE, Loulou Distracted, 1914 GIOVANNI DEMENICO TIEPOLO, A Negro, 1770

Etching

Bernie Ficek-Swenson, Fire!

Photo Etching

Mezzotint

• Does not depend on line. • Mezzotint comes from the Italian word meaning

“half tint”.• Mezzotint is rarely used, painstaking and time

consuming. How:1. The entire plate is worked with a hatcher which

creates thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. 2. The hatcher is a curved multitoothed implement. 3. Then you burnish (polish) or smooth the areas that

you want to be white.

Mezzotint

Aquatint

• Much easier and quickerHow:1. A metal plate is evenly coated with a fine powder of

acid-resistant resin. The plate is heats making the resin melt and stick to the plate.

2. The plate is placed in acid and the exposed surfaces are eaten away.

3. Aquatint is often used with line etching to make images that have tones that look like wash drawings.

Aquatint and Etching

Lithography• Lithography or planographic printing - invented in the 19th-

century by German playwright Aloys Senefelder. • Unlike relief and intaglio printing, the matrix used in

lithography is completely flat.How:1. A drawing is made with a greasy crayon on a flat stone slab.2. A solution of nitric acid is applied as a fixative3. The surface is then dampened with water. 4. The stone is covered with oily ink using a roller. (The ink

sticks to the wax but not the water) 5. then paper is pressed to the stone and the ink is transferred

from the wax.

Litho Stone

Commercial Offset Litho

Fig. 7-14, p.145 WANG GUANGYI. Great Criticism: Coca-Cola (1990- 1992). Lithograph. 73 cm x 69 cm.

SerigraphySerigraphy is also known as silkscreen printing• Stencils are used to create the design or image• Silk, nylon, or a fine mesh is stretched on a

frame. • The stencil is applied to the screen. • Paint or ink is forced through the screen

using a squeegeePhoto silkscreen - allows the artist to create

photographic images on screen covered with a light-sensitive gel.

Serigraphy

Serigraphy

Andy Warhol, Four Marylins

Serigraphy

Jim Dine, Tool Box IX

Monotype• Although monotype is a printmaking type, it also

overlaps the areas of drawing and painting.• The product of monotype is a single, original work

of art• Brushes are used, but the paint can also be

scratched off.How: 1. The artist draws or paints with oil paint or

watercolor on a nonabsorbent surface. 2. Fine detail is added by scratching paint off with a

sharp implement. 3. Paper is pressed to the surface and the image is

transferred.

Figure 7.17, p.147: EDGAR DEGAS. The Ballet Master (c. 1874). Monotype in black ink. 22” x 27 1⁄2”.