CHAPTER 8: PRINTMAKING

Jeremiah HancockCasey LewisVicky EnoulAvery PorterLaura Ball

Alexandra Cole

Printmaking

Describes a variety of techniques developed to create multiple copies of a single image

Prints in Our Society: Newspapers Books Posters Magazines Greeting cards Billboards

Printmaking: Origin

Technologies for both printing & papermaking came to Europe from China

By 9th century, China was printing pictures

By 11th century, China invented movable type

Printmaking developed in Europe in 15th century

Printmaking

In 19th century, printmakers were still needed to copy drawings, paintings, & even early photographs by making plates to be used, along with movable type, for illustrating newspapers & books

As photomechanical methods of reproduction were developed in the late 19th century, handwork was not as necessary in the process

Printmaking: Originals vs Copies

Artists have continued to use the old handcrafted printmaking processes to take advantage of their uniquely expressive properties

By designing & printing multiple originals, today’s printmakers can sell their works for much less than one-of-a-kind paintings

Printmaking: Numbering

Most all original prints are numbered to indicate the total number of prints pulled, or printed, in the edition, & to give the number of each print in the sequence

Example: The figure 6/50 on a print would indicate that

the edition totaled 50 prints & that this was the 6th print pulled

Printmaking: Proofs

As part of the process, artists make prints called progressive proofs at various states to see how the image on the block, plate, stone, or screen is developing

When a satisfactory stage is reached, the artist makes a few prints for record & personal use These are marked AP (artist’s proof)

Printmaking: Methods

Range from simple to complex Divided into 4 basic categories:

Relief Intaglio Planographic (lithography) Stencil (screenprinting)

Contemporary artists are using the old methods in new ways, sometimes combining them with digital techniques

Relief

The relief process, is where the printmaker cuts away all parts of the printing surface not meant to carry ink, leaving the design to be printed “in relief” at the level of the original surface. That surface is then inked and the ink is transferred to paper with pressure.

Woodcut (woodblock), wood engraving, and linoleum cut (linocut) are various types of relief processes.

Examples of printmaking in the everyday world include fingerprints, rubber stamps, and marks made by wet tires.

When using other colors than black and white, blocks must be registered (lined up) so that colors will be exactly positioned in the final print.

Block printing from woodcuts was first employed to spread Buddhism in China.

The Diamond Sutra is an example of this technique that can still be observed today.

Woodblock printings that flourished in Japan during the nineteenth century were made through a complex process that used many blocks to achieve color effects. Where block printing in China was used to promote religious beliefs, printings in Japan depicted night life scenes, celebrities, landscapes, and erotic pictures.

Hokusai, a Japanese artist, is known for his color woodcut prints.

Although very different in appearance, Hokusaiʼs “The Wave” and Noldeʼs “prophet” were made using the same general technique.

Linoleum cut (linocut) is a modern development in relief printing, where the artist gouges out areas of a synthetic surface of linoleum. These areas are not intended to take ink.

This method could be preferred because it has no grain and can be cut easily in any direction. Elizabeth Catlettʼs “Sharecropper” (as seen below) was made using this particular method.

Intaglio

Opposite of relief Areas below the surface hold the ink Intaglio – from the Italian intagliare “to

cut into” Image to be printed is cut or scratched

into a metal surface by steel or diamond-tip tools, or etched into the surface by acid

Intaglio: To Make a Print…

First, printmaker daubs the plate with viscous printer’s ink

Then, wipe the surface clean, leaving ink only in the etched or grooved portions

Next, damp paper is placed on the inked plate Which then, passes beneath the press roller A print is made when the dampened paper

picks up the ink in the grooves The pressure of the roller creates a

characteristic plate mark around the edges of the print

Intaglio

Traditionally, intaglio printing was done from polished copper plates

Now used: Zinc Steel Aluminum Plastic

Two Principal Intaglio processes Engraving Etching

Engraving An intaglio printmaking process in which

grooves are cut into a metal or wood surface with a sharp cutting tool called a burin or graver. Also the resulting print.

Engraving Process

Lines are made by pushing the burin through the metal to carve a groove.

Thousand of fine lines define the shapes, masses, spaces values.

Textures of the depicted objects.

The complex richness of engraved lines in Albrecht Durer’s engraving THE KNIGHT, DEATH AND THE DEVIL.

Types of EngravingClaw Engraving

Wood Engraving

Copper Engraving

Etching

A printmaking process To begin this process, you must first

prepare a metal plate with a protective coating of acid-resistant material that covers the copper or zinc called a ground.

Then, the printmaker uses a pointed tool to draw through the ground, exposing the metal, which will create more relaxed or irregular lines than those of engravings.

The plate is then immersed into acid.

Rembrandt Harmensz van RijnChrist Preaching. C. 1652

Etching.

The acid then “bites” into the plate where the drawing has exposed the metal, making a groove that varies in depth according to the strength of the acid and the length of time the plate is in the acid bath.

Aquatint is an etching process used to obtain shaded areas in black-and-white or color prints.

When the plate is put down into the acid, the areas that are exposed between the paint particles are eaten away to produce a rough surface that can hold ink.

This in turn produces values that are light or dark.

In Francisco Goya’s print entitled “The Disaster of War,” he achieves the lightly colored sky and some of the shading on the ground by using aquatint along with etched lines.

Lithography

Developed in the early nineteenth century, Lithography is a surface or planographic printing process based on the mutual antipathy of oil and water. Lithography is faster and somewhat more flexible than other methods because of its’ directness while applying the oil or water.

Lithography

People can often mistake a lithograph painting with a crayon drawing because they look similar. Another negative aspect of using lithography is that it is very easy to reproduce, and therefore the work sells for less.

Lithography The steps required for

completing a painting when it comes to using litho crayons, litho pencils, or a greasy liquid called tusche are: First the artist draws the image on

a flat, fined-grained Bavarian limestone.

Once the image is complete, it is chemically treated with gum arabic and a small amount of acid to “fix” it on the upper layer of the stone.

After that the surface is the dampened with water and is inked.

Lithography

Steps continued: The oil-based ink is repelled

by the water in the blank areas, but it adheres to the greasy area of the image.

The last step is complete once the surface is covered with paper, run through a press, and then transferred to the paper.

Lithography

Honore Daumier was one of the first great lithographic artists. He made his living drawing satirical and documentary lithographs for French newspaper. The work he did reflected his feelings and also would convey information in the way news photographs and television do today.

SCREENPRINTING

• Modern screenprinting is a refinement of the ancient and simple

technique of stencil printing

Also known as silkscreen or serigraphy (seri is Latin for silk) Silk was the traditional material used for the screen

Stencil Technique: Stencil is attached to a screen made of silk fabric stretched

across a frame A squeegee is used to push ink through the fabric in the

open areas of the stencil to make an image of the stencil on the material being printed

Synthetic fabric is used today

- Silkscreen printing was used a lot for poster production and social movements.

- The photographic stencil (or photo screen) is the latest development in screenprinting. This is

achieved by attaching light-sensitive gelatin to the screen fabric.

- Ester Hernandez made hundreds of posters declaring

Chicano identity and attacked the working conditions ofMexican-American laborers.

“Sun Mad” Ester Hernandez

“Exile” Elizabeth MurrayA “twenty-three color lithograph and screenprint Construction with collage and pastel.”

- Layers of screenprinting/silkscreening - Screenprinting to the extreme

CURRENT DIRECTIONS

1: New types of printing material

2: Digital technology

Contemporary methods and technological methods are often mixed

Photomechanical methods of reproduction have taken handwork out of the process

New Types of Printing Material

Digital Technology

“Digital technology has altered printmaking at a basic level by eliminating the tangible plate.”

This has led to infinitely reproducible prints

“Novel means of controlling the size of an edition”

Gilbert and George-Downloading time constraint

Combinations

Japanese woodcut techniques and digital image

Works Cited

http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/~sma/images/print/prd157z.gif

http://www.oldbookillustrations.com/gallery/science/wood-engraving-tools.jpg

http://www.sherline.com/images/graver.gif http://

www.rps.psu.edu/indepth/graphics/hedgescopper.jpg http://www.porcuprints.com/printmaking/ http://

www.library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/jbw/gfx/cabinet13/13-PA-4025-A75-LX43-detail.jpg

http://www.athens-travel-guide.gr/claw_engraving.jpg http://

www.po-sho.com/Comm2680/GraphicsInID/pictures/types/05_wood_engraving.jpg

http://andreas.com/hokusai.html http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pag

es/Nolde.html

http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_AfAm/pages/AfAm_8.shtml

http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Gallagher_Ellen-DeLuxe_Mr._Terrific

http://www.artedigitalcuba.cult.cu/7salon/salon/cuerpo/alicia2.htm