Introduction to printmaking techniques

1. 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.

3. METHODS OF
PRINTMAKING
4 Major Categories:
1. Relief
2. Intaglio
3. Lithography
4. Serigraphy (silkscreen)

4. 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

5. RELIEF PRINTING
Relief 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. Woodcut
2. Wood Engraving
3. Linoleum
4. Metal Type

6. 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.

7. Woodcuts

8. Woodcuts

9. Woodcuts

10. Linocut

11. Linocut

12. Printing presses

13. 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.

14. Wood Engraving

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

19. 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.

20. Intaglio includes:
• Engraving
• Drypoint
• Etching
• Mezzotint
• Aquatint

21. 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.

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

23. Engraving

24. 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.

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

26. 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.

27. Etching

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

29. Etching

30. Photo Etching
Bernie Ficek-Swenson, Fire!

31. 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.

32. Mezzotint

34. Aquatint
• Much easier and quicker
How:
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.

35. Aquatint and Etching

36. 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 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.

37. Litho Stone

41. Commercial Offset Litho

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

43. 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 screen covered with
a light-sensitive gel.

44. Serigraphy

46. Serigraphy
Andy Warhol, Four Marylins

47. Serigraphy
Jim Dine, Tool Box IX

48. 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.

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