Printmaking

The term printmaking refers to the use of a variety of media to create multiple or multiple images. With the advance of digital printing it is hard to imagine for some that at some points in life all printed matters, both images and letters, were produced by hand. Early 15th century Europe, for example, saw the proliferation of books and manuscripts, whose existence owed to hand-illustrations and hand-lettering. Au contraire, the newspapers, magazines, and tabloids one finds in a bookstore are all done through mechanical printing known as offset lithography.

In Printmaking, a finished original print is achieved through successive impressions made through contact with an inked or uninked stone, woodblock, plate, or screen. This original print is to be different from printed reproductions of artwork that exists in other media such as painting and drawing. For example, in many souvenir and gift shops at museums and galleries around the world, one may find a Picasso print of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which originally exists as a painting; this, however, does not constitute an original print, but it is not to say that Picasso himself did not produce an original print. Au contraire, his original prints such as etchings and lithographs could be found in museums and galleries, and in auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's.

Printmaking consists of four basic processes: 1. Planographic (Lithography) 2. Relief (Woodcut and Wood Engraving) 3. Intaglio (Etching and Engraving) 4. Stencil (Serigraphy or Screen Printing).

Relief

In relief printing techniques, an image is created by carving away the surface of a block of material—usually wood—so that the high areas of the relief produce the inked image, while the lower areas leave the paper exposed. The process of carving the image is subtractive, so the artist must think in the negative, removing what should not be printed. (This is the opposite of intaglio techniques, described below.)

The oldest and most common form of relief printing is the woodcut. The process starts with a flat plank of wood cut along the grain, into which the artist carves using various knives, gouges, and chisels to create the desired image. Ink is then applied to the surface of the wood using a specialized roller. The paper to be printed is placed on top of the woodblock, and pressure is applied to the paper using a printing press or a hand roller. Part of the charm of a woodcut print is in the visible artifacts of the process, such as the wood grain texture and stray marks from high spots in carved areas.

Wood engravings are cut into the end grain of hardwoods. With these harder, denser blocks, an artist can achieve a finer detail and quality of line, approaching that of engravings in metal. In fact, wood engraving and copper engraving share the same principle tool, called a burin. The handle of the burin is usually knob-shaped to be comfortable in the palm of the hand. From the handle extends a short, square shaft of steel that is beveled at an angle to produce a sharp cutting point. By altering the amount of hand pressure applied to the burin, a skilled engraver can cut lines of varying width.