Printmaking

Two-Dimensional Art

• Drawing

• Painting

• Printmaking

• Imaging: Photography, Film, Video, and Digital Arts

In comparison with painting and sculpture, engraving is a cosmopolitan art, the immediate inter-relation of different countries being facilitated by the portable nature of its creations.

–Arthur M. Hind

The Importance of Printmaking

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

Printmaking is important for 2 reasons:1. Allows us to study great works of art from a

distance2. Makes artwork available to the general

public • The art of printmaking and the physical prints

created have given rise to a unique art form.

METHODS OF PRINTMAKING

Four Major Categories:

1. Relief

2. Intaglio

3. Lithography

4. Serigraphy

METHODS OF PRINTMAKING, continued…

• A design or image is made in or on a surface by hitting or pressing with a tool.

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

• Matrix - the working surface Matrixes includes: – wood blocks– metal plates– stone slabs– and silkscreen

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

– Cut out areas are not printed, while the raised areas are.

• Ink is applied to the raised surfaces, often using a roller.

• The matrix is pressed against a sheet of paper and the image is transferred.

Types of relief printing include:• Woodcut• Wood Engraving

Woodcut

• Oldest form of printmaking

• After the invention of the printing press, it played an important role in book illustration.

• Created by cutting along the grain of the flat surface of a wooden board with a knife

Figure 7.2, p.137: ANDO HIROSHIGE. Rain Shower on Ohashi Bridge (1857). Color woodblock on paper. 13 7⁄8” x 9 1⁄8”.Figure 7.3, p.137: ZHAO XIAOMO. Family by the Lotus Pond (1998). Multiblock woodcut printed with water-soluble ink. 42.7 cm x 41.7 cm.

• Hiroshige, a 19th century Japanese artist achieved fine detail by tightly controlling the movement of his carving tools.

• Piece defined by clean-cut, uniform lines

• Same process is used for different effect by Xiaomo, contemporary Chinese printmaker

• Creates complex, energetic compositions that often simulate oil paintings

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 newpapers.

INTAGLIO

• Created by using metal plates 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.

• The paper and plate are run through a press.

• The paper is pressed in the lines, and the image is transferred to the paper.

Intaglio includes:

• Engraving

• Drypoint

• Etching

• Mezzotint

• Aquatint

Engraving

• Engraving is an ancient artistic method• Engravings were on paper during the

15th century• 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.

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

• Razor sharp tips of engraving tools and the hardness of the end-grain blocks make precision like this possible

• Form defined by tight, threadlike, parallel and cross-hatched lines.

• Very demanding and painstaking medium, this piece shows a great deal of technical ability

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 creates 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”.

• Has characteristic velvety apperance of drypoint

• More distinct lines created with a burin, and softer lines created with a drypoint needle

• Rembrandt used the blurriness of the drypoint line to enhance the sense of chaos of the Crucifixion

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

differences.• Minimal pressure is used for the depth of the line.• A chemical process does the rest.

How:1. A metal plate is covered with an acid resist and

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

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

the exposed areas, deepening the lines.

Figure 7.10, p.141: GIOVANNI DOMENICO TIEPOLO. A Negro (1770). Etching, 2nd state. 5 5/8” x 4 9/16”.

• 18th century Italian artist

• Uses a variety of wavy and curving lines to differentiate skin from cloth etc.

• Lines are spaced to provide range of tones

• Overall texture creates a hazy atmosphere

Figure 7.11, p.142 HUNG LIU. Untitled (1992). Photo-etching, mixed media. 33” x 22 1⁄2”.

• This artist was forced to work in the fields in her country of origin but is now a professor at Mills college and an exhibiting artist

• This mixed-media piece shows a photograph of Chinese prostitutes from the early 1900s

• When the communist revolution took hold, all able-bodied people were forced into labor

• These women were forced into prostitution because the tradition of foot-binding had left them barely able to walk.

• Hung Liu feels the need to make know the pain and suffering of generations of women before her

Mezzotint and Aquatint

• Mezzotint comes from the Italian word meaning “half tint”.

• Does not depend on line • 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 polish or smooth the areas that you want

to be white.

Figure 7.12, p.143 PABLO PICASSO. The Painter and His Model. (1964). Etching and aquatint. 12 5/8” x 18 1/2”.

• Picasso brought the forms out by defining them with patches of aquatint

• These tonal areas resemble swaths of ink typical of wash drawings

• Descriptive lines are etched to varying depths

Aquatint• Much easier and quicker than mezzotint

How:1. A metal plate is evenly coated with a fine powder

of acid-resistant resin. The plate is heated, causing the resin to melt and stick to the plate.

2. Lines are etched.3. The plate is placed in acid and the exposed

surfaces are eaten away. 4. Aquatint is often used with line etching to create

images that have tones that look like wash drawings.

Figure 7.13, p.144 JOSEF ALBERS. Solo V (1958). Inkless intaglio. 6 5/8” x 8 5/8”.

• 20th century american abstract artist

• Created this piece by etching lines to two different depths

• Furrows in the plate appeared to be raised surfaces when printed

• He has created a kind of impossible perspective

Other Etching Techniques

• Soft-ground etching - uses a ground of softened wax

• Lift-ground - creates the illusion of brush and ink drawing by brushing a solution of sugar and water onto a resin-coated plate

• Gauffrage – ink-less intaglio

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 fixative.3. The surface is then dampened with water. 4. The stone is covered with an oily ink using a roller. The ink

sticks to the wax but not the water.5. Paper is pressed to the stone and the ink is transferred from

the wax.

Figure 7.14, p.145 WANG GUANGYI. Great Criticism: Coca-Cola (1990- 1992). Lithograph. 73 cm x 69 cm.

• Features bold lines and sharp definition of color and shape

• Reads like an anti-american propaganda poster

• Simplicity and directness enhance the power and message of the image

• Highlights the plight of lower-class German mothers left alone to take care of their children after World War I

• High-contrast and coarse quality suggest newspaper quality

• All imagery thrust toward the picture plane, almost like high-relief

Serigraphy

Serigraphy 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

squeegee.

Photo silkscreen - allows the artist to create photographic images on the screen covered with a light-sensitive gel.

• Almost looks like a photograph transported into another medium

• Part of the image cropped off, like a photograph

• Forms defined by razor sharp edges

• Serves as a symbol of contemporary glamour

Monotype

• Although monotype is a printmaking type, it also overlaps with the mediums 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”.

• Has all the spontaneity of a drawing and lushness of a painting